Home-Bound
by SunsetSky412
Summary: Connor and Becker have been in the Cretaceous period for five years, then one day an anomaly opens up to lead them home... however, after so long the question is - what is home?
1. Prologue

**Home-Bound**

**Disclaimer: Primeval doesn't belong to me, just this particular plot-line alteration**

* * *

**Prologue**

"Connor – the grenade!"

Abby's scathing scream offered no support apart from pointing out the obvious as the young scientist rapidly scrambled through his pocket; desperately clinging to a branch with his other hand as he tried to keep his feet away from the leaping raptors, "I know – I know! I just need-"

A cold metal suddenly touched his palm, yet his eyes widened as he felt the object continue past his hold; with a panicked shout he lunged for the falling grenade only to have a firm grip haul him seconds out of reach of a set of blood-stained teeth.

"Please tell me you took the pin out," The rough tone of Danny Quinn hissed in his ear; however the answer was clearly visible from the raptor who took a second to nose the weapon before kicking it into the bushes, the meat in the sky holding greater interest.

Connor could feel his mouth dry up as he slowly looked to Abby's disbelieving gaze; registering a string of curses breathing onto the side of his face.

That was their only defence, they were stuck until the raptors got bored, which could be hours away – not that it would matter since Helen would have found the first men by then so they'd be no longer in existence anyway, along with everyone else… he'd just set human-kinds death penalty.

A strong impact against the trunk snapped them from their inward apocalyptic thoughts and Abby scrambled up another branch as she got too good a look at the inside of a raptor's mouth than she was comfortable with, "Danny!"

The man who normally had twenty pre-evaluated plans running through his head in any situation was snapping his gaze around in a flurry, holding an uncharacteristic flicker of defeat behind his forced calm exterior; without turning to face either of his friends he hurriedly revealed his only concluded resort, "I'll cause a distraction – you two get after Helen the moment the raptors' attentions off you."

The identical cry of disagreement followed the statement and Connor fiercely latched onto the man's arm, "No! There must be something else! And if anything – it should be me who causes the distraction – I was the one who dropped our only weapon!"

Danny scoffed at the demand and pulled against the scientist's grip, quite successfully pulling off a reassuring grin with a light jibe, "Hey – you can't take away my opportunity to be a memorable hero, it'll have movie-worthy dramatics."

"I am not letting you get ripped to pieces!" Connor growled, moisture forming in his eyes at the sentence from memories of Stephen and how he'd died in exactly the same way trying to save his friends.

"Okay, compromise – we'll chuck Abby," He replied, however the petite blonde found no humour in his attempt to make light of his death and Danny sighed, switching to a serious tone and fixing them with a decisive gaze, "Look, Helen could almost be at her destination – we need to stop her and sitting up in this tree discussing the matters is doing nothing."

He knew what his friend was telling him was logical and true but Connor couldn't bring himself to loosen his grip, "Please – we can-"

An explosion suddenly tore through their conversation, the shock causing the scientist to slack his grip where the other two tightened; throwing him heavily from the tree.

A high-pitched scream that he could vaguely identify as Abby mingled in among the electronic squeal bouncing around his throbbing head and he scrunched up his eye-lids; trying to focus on anything to get rid of the noise.

He felt a hand appear on his arm and the sound of his name was closer; he tried opening his eyes but a blurred vision was all he achieved so he let them slid shut again.

"He's alright," The muffled words beginning to make some sense in his brain, "Go Danny!"

The voice sounded familiar… he was sure he could place that authoritative, straight-business tone – yet it couldn't be…

"Becker?"

His question came out as a barely comprehensible mumble and Connor squinted to see the triple form of the solider slowly blend into its one original; a terrified Abby kneeling next to him, quite a contrast to the emotionless and assessing expression on Becker – although it was quite a nice feature to see as it gave hope of a leader with a plan that didn't involve being eaten.

Seemingly the soldier had been able to interpret his random noise and threw him a brief smile, grasping his hand to pull him into a sitting position, "That's me – thought you guys might need a little help."

Slowly glancing around to where the sleeping raptors lay surrounded by a still present thin layer of smoke, Connor looked to the soldier with a tone of bewildered exasperation, "So you threw a bomb at us?"

Becker smirked at the statement over the form of Abby who had thrown herself at the injured man, turning Conner's attention back to her, "Are you okay?"

"Am I okay!" She exclaimed; her gaze tinted with fury as was per usual to when the young man got himself hurt, "It's you who fell out of the tree! Is anything broken? How's your head? Are-"

"I'm fine," He gently reassured, placing his hand over her mouth to halt the questions but smiling at the concern she was showing; however shifting in a movement to stand up a sharp pain shot through his ankle and he let out a winded hiss, "Actually, second thoughts, not so fine – I think I've done something to my foot."

Becker slid forward at the theory, nudging Abby away from the scientist and placing his hands over the ankle, "Does this hurt?"

Gently applying some pressure on the slightly swollen area Connor winched as a reply to the question.

"Don't worry – I think it's sprained, not broken," The soldier informed him, quickly moving to his side and getting a grip around his waist, "But we need to get you out of here."

This statement jumped Connor's mind to the original reason for them being in the Cretaceous and panic set into his tone, "No! We need to go after Helen! She's going to-"

"Danny's on it," Becker interrupted, the slight worry for his team-mate creeping through his voice, "And you can give no help with your immobility – it's better if you two take yourself out of unnecessary risk."

Connor opened his mouth to complain about the soldier's logic but the man gently lifted him to his feet causing pressure to apply to his ankle and a sharp moan escape where words had been planned; however Abby was on the same thought-pattern and unknowingly agreed with the scientist, "No – if we're not going after him we at least need to wait… we can make camp in one of the trees until he comes back."

The suggestion saw a flicker of doubt cross Becker's expression; the part of him who was simply a man wanting to protect all of his friends agreed with Abby – waiting for Danny would give him a better chance of survival if he came back and they'd all be together to get through their situation. Yet the soldier in him, the part that had a job to do involving ensuring the minimum volume of casualties occured knew that remaining in a hazardous unknown territory for the hope of a man who may not return was defiantly not an option.

"We leave – Danny will find his own way home," He forced himself to order, trying to ignore the flashes of betrayal and shock registering on Abby's expression; he was sure Connor would be glaring at him in the same form if his face wasn't buried in his shoulder with pain.

"What! No! We can't abandon him!" Abby shouted at Becker's retreating back as he begun dragging the reluctant scientist in the direction of the anomaly, "What if something happens? Or if he thinks something has happened to us? Or do you just not care!"

The soldier flinched at the accusation, however he was used to his detached attitude in the field being mistaken for lack of emotional attachment so didn't return comment just continued on his course.

So it was a pleasant surprise when the strained voice of the limping young man chimed to his defence, "Abs that's not fair – he's just doing his job… leaving _is_ the logical decision even if none of us want to do it – so don't snap at him for taking the hard call."

The petite blonde seemed taken aback by not having support from the man who normally agreed with all her opinions and paused after the few steps she'd started to take, "But… Conn – we need to help."

He sighed at the vulnerable quality in Abby's tone and Becker tightened his grip on his waist, sensing the man's instinct to turn around to try and reassure his friend, which would not help their aim of walking in the anomaly's direction, "I know – and of course I want to – we all want to, but like Becker said, in our current position there's nothing we can offer – "

Abby made to interject here but a low rumble coming from behind distracted her; slowly turning around to the noise she was presented with the sight of a couple of the raptors twitching, one of them beginning to lift its head.

Her two companions failed to notice this occurrence as they were quite a way ahead so Connor continued his point, " -and hanging around to be eaten is not something that would be helpful to anyone."

A sudden roar followed this timed sentence and Becker swung them both around to see Abby sprinting towards them with a wobbling raptor ungraciously on her tail, "Move!" She screamed.

The soldier needed no more encouragement and swiftly bent down and slid his arm under his friend's legs, lifting him off the ground and burst into a high-speed run the moment Abby reached them. The young blonde quickly over-took them due to her lack of extra weight and watching her gain distance Becker wished he'd given her his gun to hold since shooting the creature would be a main priority on his list right now.

Fortunately the glowing cracks of the anomaly came into view as they took a sharp turn and stretching his head to glance over Becker's shoulder Connor shouted, "We'll make it – its balance is off due to the stun grenade – keep going!"

If he hadn't been limiting his breath for mere breathing purposes as his muscles screamed at his speed and the weight in his arms, the soldier would have made a sarcastic comment at how _useful _the scientist's advice was; but unable to do this he left it at a quick raised eyebrow.

"Guys! Its closing!" Sounded Abby's urgent scream from where she was anxiously shaking by the side of the anomaly that was indeed beginning to flicker; Connor's eyes widened at the sight and he reflexively tightened his grip on Becker's neck, causing the man to hardened his gaze and force his legs to double their lengths.

He could hear the scrapping footsteps of the raptor quickening and it was clear its balance was returning meaning it would soon catch up with them; but they were nearly there – the anomaly was flickering at a higher rate and Abby's gaze was latching onto it for longer periods as she tried to fight her instincts to get herself out of danger and go through the time-crack.

It was only a few more paces when suddenly Connor cried out a warning in his ear and the soldier glanced up just in time to throw them both to the floor to avoid the sharp talons of a pterodactyl; landing off the still-coming raptor's course it had no time to turn and continued in its run heading straight for Abby.

Both men threw their heads up just in time to see their friend jump through the anomaly to escape the beast tearing down at her, the last flicker as the crack in time closed the moment she was through and the thump of the raptor's headless body as the glowing shards snapped shut around its neck.

A torturous silence fell over the clearing and Connor's wide, disbelieving eyes remained unblinking on the spot that had last held Abby – Abby who was now gone, who had disappeared through their only pathway back home, their only lifeline.

The thundering squeal of an electrical surge shocked the scientist from his fixation on the no longer existent anomaly and he turned his head to the creature that was the cause of them still being here collapsing from the sky a few feet before him; only the light movement of its stomach showing it to be unconscious, not dead.

"I'd stick a bullet through its head if I didn't need to save them," Becker hoarsely whispered, a far fetch from the assertive man Connor knew.

"Abby would kill you," He replied, equally as quiet; as if keeping these tones made it all seem like a strange dream that they'd soon be rid of.

Gently moving his gaze to meet the young man's moist eyes, the soldier attempted a reassuring smile which instead resulted as a small grimace and answered, "I think that's the least of our worries now."

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_Thank you for reading, hope you enjoyed :) x_


	2. Chapter 1

**Home-Bound**

**Disclaimer: Same as said in previous chapter**

This is quite a bit longer than the last one - so I hope you enjoy it fellow few of us who still hang around this section of fanfiction :P

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Chapter 1

It had been five years since they're petite blonde friend had vanished along with the anomaly; years that had found them building a new life in what had become their time.

At first it had been a matter of survival; Becker had moved them place to place, always ensuring one person was on watch, only keeping a bag of essentials, strategically hiding rather than fighting to save the power of the Taser and later when that had run-dry – his automatic.

However after just over a year had past, Connor, the one who was always the most adamant on them finding a way home or being rescued; finally gave into their situation.

* * *

It was almost dark, the night chill was settling and the surrounding calls of prehistoric beasts were beginning to quieten.

The unruly soldier sat stone still on the middle of a branch connected to their shelter for the night; his hand placed comfortingly on the gun tied to his waist and the intimidating Taser secured on his back despite the fact it had died a few months ago. He'd probably be unrecognisable at first glance to anyone from back home now; his skin was a lot darker due to the factor of the extensive sun exposure and his body was a lot less toned since food was very limited, even more so than his tours with the forces – although to his friend's envy he had still managed to retain his muscled biceps; the whole daily fight for your life experience was probably a key element to that.

A shiver ran down his spine as the breeze changed direction and he tightened his small ponytail being held by the band his friend had made from some vegetation they found; usually the soldier would have shot anyone for ever daring to suggest him tying up his hair, however it wasn't practical to have obstructions to his sight when fleeing dinosaurs – plus after Connor almost swiped his head off when throwing a knife a few weeks into their stay, he'd still yet to feel comfortable allowing the man near his neck with a sharp object; even if he'd been proceeding well in the weaponry lessons Becker was giving him.

"Hey," The soldier tilted his head to the overly familiar voice and glanced to the young scientist who was walking towards him on the branch with the skills of a high class acrobat.

Shuffling over to allow his friend to sit down he returned the greeting with a light smile; he didn't need to ask what Connor wanted, after so long they'd come to read each other to near perfection and this tone indicated the beginning of the subject neither fought to mention too often.

"It's been 16 months," Connor whispered in a style that seemed to indicate he was speaking to himself; though Becker knew he was included.

"I've always kept the idea that we'd get back," He continued, absent-mindedly playing with the leaves of the tree beneath his fingers, "Danny would re-appear from his trek after Helen, Abby and Sarah would rush from an anomaly leading to our time and drag us home – sometimes I'd even picture Lester bursting into the clearing sporting a huge gun." He joked with a light half-shrug, causing a smirk to flicker on the soldier's lips at the imagery.

Turning to face his friend whose gaze was still firmly fixed on the distance mountains, a sad smile spread over the young scientists expression, "But I don't think that's the case mate."

A miniscule muscle tensed in Becker's neck, the only indication that he was upset by his own thoughts being confirmed - but Connor noticed, "It's been too long, and I don't want to believe it as much as you but it's the truth… this is where we live now, our new life, and…" Sighing he ran a hand through his greasy hair, since his friend hadn't designated a safe-zone for them to wash in the past few weeks and winched in pre-reaction to how he knew the soldier would respond, "I think we need to settle down."

As expected the young man was met with a cold-hard glare at his statement, one which used to lead him to slowly back out of the soldier's perimeter and not return for a fair few hours; however he'd now sat out his fair share of glares and lectures for his accident-prone behaviour so was really no longer affected by them.

"You want to remain stationary in a hostile area! Connor I know its tiring but moving positions is what keeps us alive – and even if you've given up on us returning home, I'm not going to let you just hang around to be eaten!" His tone held all the authority he could muster through his tiredness; although a slight panic was present on the verge of his exclamation – when you were living in a world where you're entire company and contact revolved around one person; protective instincts swelled to a maximum.

"Hey, hey – wait a minute!" Connor interrupted, placing a hand on his shoulder, "This isn't me trying to kill myself or anything – but this also isn't one of your army missions; I know this place, I know what's dangerous and what's safe – with my knowledge and your survival skills I'm pretty certain we could find somewhere to set up a secure base."

Becker swallowed down his argument as the emotion in his friend's eyes caught him; he looked so tired, so disappointed and simply desperate for the feeling of home, everything that the soldier was positive glowed in his eyes also. However Connor's expression held a hint of something more – within that sadness and defeat there was a spark… a spark of hope?

That certainly wasn't an emotion he'd witnessed in a while.

The soldier mentally sighed, knowing he'd been caught out by that pitiful look yet again and before he allowed his mind to form some risk-assessing excuse, he forced a grin and threw his arm around his friend's shoulder, "Well I do have pretty good survival skills."

"Seriously!" Connor beamed; his face lighting up like a child at Christmas, "We don't have to move anymore?"

Becker chuckled at the response and ruffled the young man's hair; however, a light snapping suddenly caused them to both tense and throw their gaze in the direction of a bush a few yards away.

"Well… maybe just this one last time," Becker whispered, securing his back-pack and picking up the vine rope he'd made, throwing it so the hook finely carved from stone on the end attached to the neighbouring tree.

Slowly balancing across the rest of the branch as his friend silently began swinging in the opposite direction to the ominous noise, Connor quietly replied, "I can deal with that," Before leaping onto another branch attached to a closer tree and following the soldier's path.

The next morning had begun their search for a suitable area to construct the base, or as Connor was adamant on naming it, their 'new house'; it took a few weeks but eventually as the young man drew up more detailed designs, features that the soldier could hardly believe his friend would be capable of building with natural materials from the land, Becker also began referring to the building as a house.

And with surprising speed, they stumbled across a perfect candidate.

A strong, thick-rooted trunk would form the structure of the build; it had numerous thick branches dispersing in many directions, all of which the soldier had ensured were at a height protective from all grounded animals with a spring in their step. On the left side of the tree ran a thin stream which led to a nearby lake within a sheltered valley; a beautiful mountain landscape sat as a back-drop which Connor was planning to ensure was the bedroom view and lying just behind the trunk was a smooth stretch of land which Becker announced had perfect soil type for the growth of the crops they'd found and labelled their favourites.

Over the course of the next months an average- sized front room was built stretching across and slightly further than the trunks span from result of the scientists now self-named 'budding architect' designs and a lot of manual labour on the lone soldiers part. As time progressed features continued to be added to their house; with a lot of effort they managed to carve a staircase into the trunk that led from inside the lower floor to the upper rooms that had been structured between the sturdy branches and hand-made furniture soon became mandatory in every living space – although Becker forcefully took over the construction of these items as it was found Connor really didn't have a hand for delicate or neat work.

Security was also an explicit factor for the build; something soldier-boy spent many an hour stressing over with his checks and re-checks despite his friend's teasing complaints. 'Teasing' they both knew because each was aware of the reason for Becker needing to carry out such thorough assessments; it was a piece of home that he could cling to even without the hope of returning, the same as how Connor continued to constantly throw himself into inventing new objects. So even though they would moan about the others obsessions; it was never heart-felt.

The soldier had placed multiple thin lines of string in a wide perimeter around the area; all of which led back to a central point in the 'control room' where a particular wooden bell would chime, it's pitch relating to the position the alarm had been alerted. If such an occurrence happened then he had an array of levers, each which would pull a large vine-weaved net up from its hidden position on the floor disallowing further entry for the creature hence forcing it to become bored and move away.

Fortunately these events didn't happened often as the area had also been picked for its lack of settling carnivore predators so any of the few herbivore creatures nosing around simply felt too threatened to even approach with enough distance to trigger the string.

However, there was an incident of exception to this; but it had positive effects on the settlers rather than causing any hassle or annoyance… at least to some degree.

* * *

"Where is it?" Connor yelled down, leaning out of the top window to where his friend had already strapped on the wooden yet surprisingly effective gun he'd designed and had the scientist make equations for meaning it could actually take down most creatures.

Throwing his head up Becker replied, "West side – the nets gone up so I'm going to check it out," Grinning, he added with a raised eyebrow, "You want to come?"

The energetic man lit up at the offer, it showed how the soldier was becoming more comfortable and natural around him rather than acting as if this was all just a period of constant duty; in a work frame of mind he would never suggest Connor coming with him to check out an unknown threat.

"Let's get moving action-man!" He laughed as he leapt from the tree, grasping onto their calculated placed loose rope to turn his fall into a swing leaving him with a tidy landing a few feet away from his amused friend.

"You enjoy jumping off tall items way too much," He commented, throwing the man a spare gun, "And please try to not get eaten."

"Why - would you miss me?" Connor teased as he fell into step next to the soldier.

"No, I'd miss your ability to build new guns for me."

"You know – I think you have a serious addiction to weaponry and I'm not sure I'm that comfortable with it seeing as we live together."

"Scared I'm going to start using you as target practice?"

"Well yeah! It's not like your security system lets through enough creatures to satisfy your bloodlust."

"I don't have a bloodlust."

"Gun-lust?"

"No – I don't…"

"Shooting-lust or… bullet-lust!"

"Connor I have no kind of machine related lust!"

"You talk to your weapons."

"I'm just running over strategies out-loud."

"You stayed up most of the night stroking your gun the day I made it."

"I – well… oh look we're here!"

The scientist smirked as Becker made a quick dash to where the large net blocked the far perimeter; he knew the soldier was aware he probably looked after his weapons to a near unhealthy level but that didn't mean Connor didn't enjoy getting him riled up over it.

"So what do you think it was?" He queried as he walked over to join his friend who was knelt down examining a section of the weaved rope.

"Well definitely carnivore from the extent of fraying it's established on the net, but I think its ill – there's little pressure for a creature on a hunt for meat and it obviously didn't stay around for long… then these footprints, well I'd claim it to be a raptor – female presuming from the inclination in the ground."

Connor smiled at the soldier's assessing expression as a teacher would on a high-achieving pupil; the dinosaur expert had spent a long time educating his friend on every detail about the creatures in their era, ensuring he was aware of all factors. From this the army man had took all the information and applied it to his tracking techniques; meaning they no longer had to be in clawing distance of a creature to identify it.

"Anyway – let's get this net re-set up," Becker announced, standing and rolling his shoulders back in an action that apparently prepared his muscles; although the less toned man suspected he simply did it as a jibe to his lack of ability of being able to produce visible muscles despite the fact he was now just as strong as the soldier.

Shaking his head Connor sighed, "I really need to invent a system that does this manually from your control room – then we wouldn't need to come on these expeditions each time you pull one of the nets up."

Becker smirked at the comment as his tone groaned under the weight of the item, "Well – you can get on that, but how about first you actually lend me a hand because – wait a minute… Connor!"

Something had caught the scientist's eye during his friend's response and dropping his section of the net he headed towards it with a curious expression; leaving the soldier stuck under a tonne of rope throwing a glare at his retreating back.

"Hey Becker," He loudly whispered as he cautiously approached the tree that was spouting a small tail at its roots, "I think there's still something over here."

"Then stop moving towards it, you – oh stupid net! Connor just… for goodness sake!" The soldier shouted since his limbs were now fully tangled among the rope; therefore allowing his annoyance to overcome him and the knife in his pocket make a quick appearance as he began violently slashing at the material.

"Becker!"

The soldier's head snapped up to the urgent cry sounding from the tree his friend had been placed only seconds earlier.

Adrenaline pumped into his bloodstream in automatic response to signs of the young scientist being in trouble and his arms suddenly ripped through the indented ropes; a hand reflexively reaching to draw his gun forward as he flung himself in the direction of the shout.

However, upon arriving in 'save the idiot's life' combat mode he was met with a glare and rude hush from his perfectly un-mauled friend.

"She's dying – a gun in her face is the last thing she needs to see," Connor hissed, grabbing the soldier's arm and pulling him down to kneel by the injured creature before he could make a retort.

Laying a hand on the beast's head, the young man began to comfortingly stroke its textured skin, "Poor girl," He murmured with sincere sympathy, bringing his other hand to delicately rest on the weakening rise and fall of its stomach.

Tilting slightly to the left of this peaceful image found a bewildered Becker staring at the scientist as if he was… well, as if he was petting a velociraptor!

"Connor…" The soldier drew out in resemblance to a parent attempting to take a new toy away from their child, "Maybe we should just –"

"She's too weak to do any damage," He pre-answered, not taking his gaze off the fading creature; sensing his friend was struggling with an inner urge to simply eliminate the raptor quickly before it could take an easy bite, he reached over and took Becker's hand, slowly moving it to rest on the beast's neck, "See."

The soldier tensed up the moment his skin made contact with the raptor, however after a few seconds the rhythmic weak pulse began to vibrate through his fingers and he sensed his muscles relaxing into the gentle beat; it gave him a hint into the reason why Connor enjoyed having his pet dino-lizard around so much, there was something amazing about the pre-historic animals.

As if hearing this thought a sad smile grew on the young man's lips and a tone lost in memories slipped from his mouth as he continued to stroke the dying creature, "I've missed this you know – being close to the animals… I saw Rex every day; and then Sid and Nancy came as well – "

His hand curled up on the raptor's back as images he hadn't thought of in a long time pushed to his barriers, "I realise it's strange but I really did love those guys – they were home and I… I don't know – I guess… I guess I just miss them is all."

A stray tear fell down Connor's cheek as he closed up; the drop hitting the creature and rolling down its head to its eye; giving the impression that the raptor was shredding a lone tear for something lost also – and as the light water droplet hit the forest floor, the raptor's gaze faded into the unseeing.

Without words Becker placed his arm around his friend's shoulder, drawing him into an embrace; they remained in that position for a few minutes as thoughts of their old lives flew around their minds, taking comfort from knowing that despite the fact they may have lost many – they weren't alone.

"I think she was protecting something," Connor announced, breaking the silence and ending their moment of grief; neither ever directly talked about matters after such an occurrence, for them it simply wasn't needed.

Becker nodded in agreement, using his gun as a leaning pole to stand up while he scanned his gaze around the immediate area, "Well she was definitely desperate to get through our net – she must have had a reason for being so persistent despite being on her death bed."

The scientist's brows drew together at the man's comment and his head looked down to the clear trail leading away from the raptor; the path it had taken to arrive at the net, "I wonder…"

The soldier rolled his eyes as the pondering look entered his friend's gaze and knowing he wouldn't sway the man to return to the safety of their house and its perimeter; Becker secured his hold on his gun and followed.

At the end of a reasonable sized walk, the object of the female raptor's desire to get through their defences, where fresh water and pre-gutted meat lay, became apparent.

Flicking his eye-line up from where the lone egg sat Becker caught the begging question in his friend's gaze and his eyebrows flew up, a hand rising in warning, "No!"

The pleading quality in Connor's expression seemed to intensify and the soldier took a step back, as if it would protect him from the influence of the look he knew worked much too well, "I said no! We are not –"

However then the bottom lip turned into a pout and he felt his posture slack and his voice grudgingly sigh, "Fine – keep it."

He turned as to not have to witness the sight of an unborn carnivorous beast being picked up by a gleeful child to be brought back to their now 'once' safe house and made his way back along the trail with slight more emphasise in his steps.

"But there is no promise that it won't end up with a bullet in its head!"

However, despite Becker's constant argument that as soon as its teeth came in one of them was going to wake up missing a chunk of their arm throughout the entire 'baby' period, Steve, as they'd named him, actually grew up as the first ever tamed raptor.

He would play games with them, often involving mock-fights similar to how he would act if with his fellow species, which would only give the two humans brief scratches and bite marks at the most. He'd eat the food provided, sleep on the floor of their bedroom much like a domestic pet and he even showed signs of protective instinct towards them; the soldier especially enjoyed the aspect of having a 'guard dog' added to their security.

Yet months later the proved success of Steve set off a chain reaction and suddenly Becker felt like Connor was aiming to invent the first zoo; he'd often find himself dragged around in attempts to track down abandoned shelters or nests in order to rescue eggs or barely day old creatures.

Some new residents didn't work out very well; such as Kelly the Ornithomimid who ended up with a knife through her neck as Becker was awoken to the sight of the creatures small ostrich-sized head pulled back ready to take a bite out of a sleeping Connor.

Although disregarding the few mistaken trials at 24 Dino Drive, the official name of the house stated clearly by the sign the soldier had made, who had even placed a mail box next to it which they'd both leave letters in for each other on a daily basis just for the fun of it – Connor had actually gone further and started writing a short newspaper on the day they'd label Sunday telling of all the local news that week; Becker would pick it up each time and read it with his morning 'forest tea'.

The estate overtime came to hold quite a family within its perimeter; Steve was the eldest and held a special soft spot in both their hearts even if he did prefer Connor just a bit more, then there were the sibling Ankylosaurus' Lola and Grace who were always ones for demanding their way by continuously banging against one of the guys legs with their thick body armor; a result of more bruises than anything gained from the raptor of the group.

Following this was Dom the Pachycephalosaurs; or 'Dim Dom' as he was dubbed since despite the massive domed bone on the top of his little lizard-like head, it didn't give him any extra brain power up there and he was lucky that Steve took a liking to him because unlike Grace and Lola who weren't possible to take a bite of – Dom would be easy picking.

Then lastly was Becker's 'pirate parrot' as Connor enjoyed teasing; Polly the Pedopenna who had quite a bird resemblance to her and although not being able to fly, would enjoy fluttering and perching on the army man's shoulder which he secretly found cute but couldn't deal with for long periods since she was actually quite heavy.

"Hey Conn! You're going to love what I found," Becker called out as he walked into the kitchen, lobbing a bag of fresh meat into the freezer room and picking up a bottle of beer from the top cupboard; accessories from their last anomaly visit.

The cracks in time had become their own personal shopping centres since Connor arrived back at the house around nine months ago with a tonne of cake, bread and sugar after accidently stumbling through an anomaly while out collecting edible plants which had found him in the Victorian Era with people who were quite happy to trade for the his exotic vegetables.

Initially the soldier had been set against the idea of willingly going through any cracks they found because he didn't want a risk of either of them getting trapped away from their house; however after the scientist pointed out that if they could visit somewhere with metal and electric items he could probably grab some and go about improving Becker's weaponry collection – it wasn't really a point the army man could argue with.

There were actually a surprising amount of anomalies which would appear in their era and each one always led them to a different time; it turned into an exciting hobby for the two friends, seeing all the mysteries of earth's history and future, plus they collected a good store of food, furniture and techy stuff which Connor used to make even better designs or gadgets for the house.

One visit Becker even managed to nab two solar-powered motorbikes from a future period; drag racing quickly became a daily activity.

Yet one thing that somehow never seemed to cross either man's mind when jumping through new anomalies into different time periods was if this one would lead them home – somewhere along the years the thought had been forgotten.

* * *

"Conn?" The soldier shouted out again, sticking his head up the stairs in-case his friend had locked himself in his lab again working on a new project.

A weight suddenly landed on his shoulder and Becker reached up to stroke the creature's soft head, "Hey there Pol – you know where my geeky side-kicks got to?"

Polly nipped his hair in reply, most likely smelling the dinosaur meat on him and he swiped at her beak with a chuckle, "You know where it is, get it yourself if you're that hungry."

But she seemed content enough where she was so didn't make a sign of movement, instead latching more firmly onto her perch as it opened up the side door and headed down the garden path in search of the young scientist.

"Good job buddy – it'll break one day," Becker amusedly encouraged as he strolled past 'Dim Dom' who was still running head first into a small boulder since he found it three days ago.

Reaching the end of the garden the faint sound of laughter hit his ears and he smirked, continuing on through the dense collection of trees, "What do you want to bet he hasn't convinced Steve to get in the water?"

Polly hummed into his ear, stretching out her right wing with a small click.

"Oh you're on," The soldier replied, lightly slapping his hand against the open wing in their own version of a high-five.

Breaking out of the trees he came into a clearing that held a large lake which was connected to the stream running past their house; and as expected, splashing around in the middle of the water was a frustrated Connor wildly gesturing at a stubborn raptor standing at the edge of the bank, "Look Steve –its fine! Come on man you seriously stink!"

"I'm sure he can't be much worse than you," Becker shouted, smirking at the glare the young man sent his way.

"Well you try having a beast tackling you to the ground with a scent like his," The scientist grumbled as he made his way over to the water edge, apparently having used his maximum patience on his moody pet.

Grabbing Connor's outstretched hand the soldier pulled him from the lake in one quick motion, flinging the towel hanging on a nearby branch at his head, "That's why I made favourites with the hygienic species."

"Yeah, yeah," He muttered, scrubbing the fabric over his hair and flicking the end of it at Polly who had tilted her head at Becker's comment in what he thought was a smug form, "So did you want something or did you just come to insult my raptor?"

The soldier placed a hand on his disgruntled passenger to hold her back from playing out revenge for the towel attack, "Surprisingly no," He replied, "Actually I came to ask if you were ready for another trip?"

Connor's expression lost all signs of annoyance at the question and a grin flashed onto his face, "Seriously! Ah mate we haven't had one in ages; I hope it's a modern time, I'm massively low on wiring for the interconnection panel relating to my –"

A hand smothered the beginning of the technical ramble as Becker cut in, "Flashy blinking thing."

"Yes…" The scientist drawled in a patronisingly slow tone once dragging his friend's hand away, "The flashy blinking thing."

The soldier whacked his friend's head for the tone and chucked him a pile of clothes, "Whatever – unless I can shoot with it I don't need to know the full backstory; come on, let's get moving dino-geek."

"Well of course action-man would only be interested if he could play with it," Connor retaliated as he hurriedly slipped into his dry outfit, throwing his wet shirt at the soldier whose reflexives had him miss the offending object.

"Right," The scientist declared, spreading his arms wide with a childish grin plastered on his face, "Let's go on an adventure!"

However before Connor could register why his friend's amused expression had suddenly turned to one of shock as he leaped away from him; a torrent of water smashed into his back.

Slowly turning around in his now soaking wet clothes the scientist came to sight Grace and Lola standing where the raptor once stood; whilst said raptor flailed around in the middle of the lake looking less than impressed.

"Well – you wanted him clean," Becker coughed as he tried to hold back his laughter, although failing when his friend turned back to him with his long hair gelled across his features.

Still laughing the soldier grabbed his friend's arm and began dragging him in towards the house, throwing up a hand in the direction of Steve and the two sisters in a farewell gesture, "See you later guys! We'll try and get you something nice."

"Wait a minute," Connor protested as he was pulled along, "I can't go through an anomaly like this!"

"Sure you can," The soldier replied, "It's not like anyone's going to know you."

"Even so I'm sure they'd wonder why I was walking around dripping from head to toe."

"Just say you were taking a bath."

"In a full outfit, yes, because that makes sense."

"Well we don't have time for you to change again – the anomaly could close and I am running low on beer so I need to see if this place has any."

"Maybe I'll tell someone you were trying to drown me – get an angry mob after you."

"I could take an angry mob."

"You couldn't take that Celtic farmer."

"That doesn't count – he had an enormous pitch fork!"

"It was rusted and falling apart and you ran away."

"Oh like you weren't already ten paces in front of me," Becker jibed back, nudging his friend's arm which sent him stumbling a few steps to the side.

"Yeah but I don't have a reputation to uphold soldier boy," He replied, quickly ducking under the hit for the usage of the nickname, "Anyway, I think you may need to ditch your hitch-hiker."

They'd reached the anomaly which only lay a few feet outside of the west side of their perimeter and Becker smirked at the statement; he'd forgotten the creature was still on his shoulder – that would take some explaining if they were about to walk into a historical and populated period.

Taking a few steps back the soldier clicked his fingers above his fisted hand, signalling the Pedopenna to switch her perching stand, "Come on Pol – no road trip for you."

Polly didn't seem very happy at the idea of being left behind and flicked a wing across Becker's face to announce this as she fluttered back behind the perimeter.

Connor laughed at the creature's behaviour as he threw his friend a replenished woodened bullet gun from the bag the soldier had dropped at his feet; they did now own a variation of weapons which included highly advanced types from future eras, however Becker always opted for using the scientists designed ones first – even though he would never rave about it, he secretly was awed by the effectiveness and lethality of something carved and mechanised from just items found in the forest; hence he felt that since his friend had put so much time into building the gun for him in those early months where he had nothing, he shouldn't just stop using them simply because they'd hijacked different stuff.

"She's not going to like you when we get back," The scientist remarked with a raised eyebrow.

Becker chuckled at the sight of Polly hopping off in the direction of the house before walking to his friend's side and clapping a hand on his shoulder, "She'll get over it – let's just hope this place has some good meat I could bribe her with."

Connor smiled at the statement and glanced expectantly at his friend, waiting for him to step through the anomaly; not because he was scared of going first, it was instead due to Becker and his protective action-man instincts that wouldn't allow the scientist to step into an unknown territory exposed – not that he'd ever admit it.

"Same bet?" The soldier asked as he put weight onto his front leg.

Following his friend's lead Connor replied, "Last one to clarify where we are has to clean out the toilet."

"And I'm sure you'll have fun doing that," Becker smirked as they both disappeared through the glowing cracks in time…

… and arrived straight into the path of a couple of dozen snipers.

* * *

_Thank you for reading, hope you enjoyed it :) x_


	3. Chapter 2

**Home-Bound**

**Disclaimer: Once again, same as before**

**A/N: **Thank you for reading this! I don't like this chapter as much as the last one but I hope you still enjoy it :)

* * *

Chapter 2

The sight of numerous armed weapons targeted directly at them flared Becker's training and in response his left shoulder subtly jerked twice; an indication to Connor of which of the many memorised defensive procedures he wanted performed.

Within exactly three seconds of the two men appearing through the anomaly and processing the threat, they were ready to strike.

The soldier had his gun aimed at the left side of the enemy with a medium sized knife pointing at the other half, the scientists own gun resting on the army officials shoulder focused on the direct line of attack while his other hand lay on the lower-back waist band of his friend grasping four small hidden daggers which could be in the chest of their assailants the moment Becker gave the signal.

A finger of the man standing in the centre of the sniper arrangement hovered nearer the trigger at this sudden offense and the soldier tensed, his own finger clenching in mille-seconds from shooting the apparent leader when a sudden cry froze his position.

"Matt, stop!"

Both men's eyes snapped towards the panicked voice and Becker could feel his friend's hand grip the back of his shirt as his own eyes widened at the image pushing her way through the sea of black-kitted forces.

"Abby?" The cracked whisper of the scientist questioned, his hand losing its grip around the daggers.

"Connor…" She replied in an equally quiet gasp of disbelief as her fingers tightened around the barrel of the gun the man 'Matt' still had aimed at them, "Becker?"

An uncomfortable silence fell over the room as the three friends assessed one another, none quite believing that what was unfolding was actually reality and their lack of actions were leaving all the snipers to begin throwing quick glances at each other; not being sure if they should continue to treat this as a breach of security.

However after a few moments of indecisive staring a long missed sarcastic voice announced, "Well if nobody's going to start hugging and playing inspirational music anytime soon, do you think we could all get back to work."

This broke the invisible barrier that had been holding both parties back from approaching the other and Connor suddenly found a pair of legs wrapped around his waist and a thin arm draped around his neck, the other flung around the soldier dragging him into the centre of an emotional woman's group hug.

"I thought you were dead!" The petite blonde choked into Connor's shoulder, her fingers digging into the nape of his neck as if he would suddenly disappear under her grip.

"Far from it," He smiled into her hair, placing a reassuring kiss on the side of her head before slacking his arms from her back, prompting the young woman to unwrap herself from the scientist and turn her attention to pull Becker into an embrace; who identically dropped a light kiss on the top of her head – they too had never been sure if they're bubbly friend had survived the trip home all those years ago, it was a moment of relief for not simply her mind.

"Lester!" Connor shouted with a beam, pulling his wrist out of Abby's death grip and sprinting towards the primly suited man watching the scene with a hint of a smile and what he would swear under oath was defiantly not a touch of moisture in his eyes; leaping on him before protest could be achieved and pulling him into a firm hug.

Immediately Lester struggled against the hold; quite violently shoving against his former-roommate's chest as his face scrunched up against the effort of such a feat seeing as the scientist was a lot stronger than once before, "Connor! You are soaking wet!"

The scientist's face lit up even more at the piercing shout in his ear and he laughed at the tone, "Oh I missed you yelling at me!" Allowing the annoyed man to leave his embrace yet keeping one arm around his shoulder Connor threw his face over to the soldier still standing by the anomaly, a childish grin on his features, "See Beck – that's how the master does it! That is how it, is, done!" He exclaimed, roughly shaking his boss through pure lack of ability to retain the extent of his excitement and high running emotions.

The soldier simply smiled at his friend's behaviour, the shock of the situation not quite yet allowing his vocal chords to kick back into gear.

"Yes, yes happy reunions all around – someone get the tissues," Lester drawled, although the fact that he hadn't shoved the dripping arm from around his shoulder giving recognition that he was also joyed to see his two old team members after so long, "However since it's clear that there's no immediate threat, could you clear out your brutes because they are blocking my path to the kitchen."

Matt smirked at the order but nodded his head to the man clearly in charge of the armed force and the array of guns dispersed from the room; only the leader and a couple of others remaining at the edge of the exits for security protocol.

"I'm Matt by the way," The man confirmed, taking a step to shake the soldier's hand whilst simply throwing a brief gesture to the scientist in a form of greeting.

"And I'm Jess," A perky voice added as a vibrantly floral dressed young woman stepped out from behind what seemed to be the upgraded Anomaly Detection Device, her bubbly tone continuing as she gushed, "I can't believe you guys are actually here – I've read so much about you from your files… not that, I mean of course it's because Abby would _talk_ about you as well – I wasn't just –"

With a sharp cough Lester cut through the woman's ramble throwing her a glare for the overly-cheery attitude, "Yes – well as you can probably tell Matt is group leader, however he does hold an affliction for shooting people so try to always stay out of his line of fire because the paperwork for those incidents is incredibly tedious – Jess there is our computer geek and somewhere in the building there'll be Kevin who goes about inventing a load of stuff that costs me money and gets me into arguments with the minister."

Connor had moved to stand beside Becker again as their colleague ran through a description; he wasn't used to being in the presence of so many people and he'd found himself inclining back to the only familiar person in the room, which sounded strange considering there were others he should feel comfortable with surrounding him.

"What about Danny and Sarah?" The soldier questioned in a neutral tone, the coldness shining in his gaze hinting that he already knew the answer however the feeling of his friend tensing and edging unnoticeably nearer him revealing that in contrast it hadn't been something the young man had contemplated.

Awkward glances quickly began passing around the room, everyone looking to another person to diverge the obvious; finally it was Abby, who had re-claimed a position by Connor's side, who placed a hand over the scientist's own and quietly said, "Sarah's fine – she got a transfer to another Anomaly Research Centre overseas… she didn't, well – there were hard memories here. However Danny… he came back about four years ago – but there was this whole event with his brother and he ended up following him through again… we, we haven't seen him since."

Becker let his chest fall from where he'd been holding it on hearing that neither of his old friends were dead but Connor flinched at the news of Danny; the soldier automatically knew what caused the reaction, the young man was thinking back to the last time they'd seen their charming easy-going friend and how if he hadn't let go of the tree Danny would have had company for that year he was alone which may have helped him somehow when he'd arrived back into the present time.

Slightly shifting his position Becker leaned to his right and murmured, "Conn, that's not true."

The scientist gave a subtle shrug in reply to his friend's answer to his thought but allowed himself to take some comfort from the words anyway.

Abby didn't notice the exchange between the two men; not that she should – they were craftsmen at being discreet, a talent emerging from many day long stake outs to take down fresh meat.

The petite blonde still had her fingers wrapped around Connor's hand and her thumb started to rub small circles on his skin; causing his muscles to tense up rather than relax, "I've missed you so much… I –"

However Abby's private whisper was interrupted by the arrival of a new panting voice and her expression froze as an averaged height, lanky man with wavy black hair that tickled the top of his ears and a pair of grey rimmed glasses that covered his dark brown eyes came running into the room, "Sorry – I heard the alarm but I was in the middle of my echo-sound trial and…"

The stranger came to a halt at the sight of two unkempt, savage looking men with tussled hair, uneven stubble and dangerous scars hinting from under where their shirt sleeves ended standing in the middle of the secure base; like all the previous greetings he also seemed on the verge of reaching for the nearest gun.

Fortunately Lester intruded before such became the case and lazily added as he made his way into his office, "As I said – this is Kevin who will find himself in the Menagerie with the carnivores if he doesn't learn the meaning of an anomaly alert… I'm sure you and Connor will find many a techy thing to discuss."

The click of the heavy door ended his sentence but something changed in the new arrivals expression at his boss' last words and his gaze snapped to the mentioned scientist, sliding down to where Abby's hand had suddenly disappeared on the naming of her returned friend.

"Connor!" Kevin exclaimed with slight too much emphasise, his eyes lingering briefly on the young man before forcing their way to the soldier who unnoticeably had become more alert at the new variable and his tense response to them, "And you must be Becker! Wow I always hoped I'd get the chance to meet you both."

Walking over to them he slung an arm around the blonde's shoulder as he reached out his hand, "Yeah and as boss man said, I'm Kevin - Abby's fiancée."

Becker couldn't restrain a glance to his friend in response to this clear stake of claim yet he saw no common signs of distress on his expression or within his body language so the soldier took the man's out-stretched hand into a firm shake, "Nice to meet you."

Connor offered a slight nod rather than excepting the palm that angled towards him; it wasn't that he had a particular affliction to touching the man; simply that this much human contact was starting to settle an uncomfortable sensation in the pit of his stomach so he was keen to limit the extent of it all.

However, for those who weren't Becker in the room, the assumption became that the scientist was not taking the news of Abby's fiancée well and Matt stepped forward to digress from the moment; despite the fact he was a stranger within that history knowledge, "I guess you guys will want to go and clean up, we could grab you some spare clothes here or –"

Jess bounced forward with a file in her grasp to cut through her college's suggestion, "Or you could go shopping! I've just looked it up and neither of you were ever taken off pay-roll; you've got a fair amount of cash just sitting around doing nothing."

Becker felt a hand grasp his wrist at the mention of attending a place where there'd likely be a few hundred people running, shouting and bumping into one another; so the soldier gave the bubbly woman a gentle smile and replied, "Thank you, but I think it may be a bit too soon for the thought of a shopping centre – we can grab anything lying around here."

The computer tech returned the expression, flicking her eyes to the ground as she got a bit too caught up in the man's gaze; she may have a boyfriend but that didn't mean she was oblivious to the firm jawline and liquid brown eyes under that rugged exterior.

"Sure, I'll help you find something," She offered, gesturing the two arrivals to follow her.

As they obeyed the signal, Abby also made a move in the trio's footsteps; the distance between herself and Connor practically non-existent. On rushing forward to continue gushing words of comfort over her old flatmate she failed to see the brief hint of fear flash across Kevin's face as he quickly made to catch up.

Exiting the main control room, the soldier found himself analysing the space they'd arrived in.

Clearly it was a new building, yet the whole situation within the group seemed to be on the same aims as it had been all those years ago; although with a wider array of guns – not that Becker was complaining.

From a security viewpoint he felt that this layout had too many twists and hidden pockets compared to the old sight as simply from the few paces they'd taken down this corridor he'd spotted two ventilation covers which were not in the spy-zone of the cameras fixed to the wall; a silent sigh fell from his mouth as these thoughts led him to Danny and the man's original method of checking the security system – those techniques wouldn't have had an opportunity to be applied here.

Connor threw a concerned glance at the wave of grief he sensed trickle over his friend but the soldier gave a slight shake of his head with a grateful dismissal in his eyes, so the scientist turned back to allow Jess' friendly small-talk and Abby's declarations of how much she'd missed him to continue unknowingly fall on deaf ears.

Becker could tell that his friend was feeling growingly uncomfortable in the continuing presence of so many people; especially as said people were walking in a form that had them blocked in, plus their petite blonde was still clinging to the scientist's arm as if her life depended on it.

Connor had explained to him during one of their 'Lets tell our life-story' moments how he'd been a home schooled single child until Year 10 when his parents had thought it would be more beneficial to have him carry out his GSCEs in an educational system; meaning he'd had near to no social experience even though being quite a way into his teenage years.

This had left him vaguely fearful of having to deal with large groups since he'd only been socialised to experience interactions with a maximum of perhaps four people at a time; a problem when surrounded by energetic teens whose life aims seemed to be involving themselves with as many people as possible.

Obviously this inversion had improved overtime however the soldier could see that the extensive period of single human contact was resurfacing those fears once again.

"Hey Abby," Becker called, touching the woman's arm in an attempt to distract her in a hopeful result to take a slight step away from the tense scientist, "What do you –"

A dull whine suddenly screeched throughout the building and red flashes struck the corridor corners; these aspects the two returned men recognised as it seemed nobody had ever had a desire to alter the tone of the anomaly siren – however a factor they weren't familiar with, that caused them to whip around in confusion, were the thick metal shutters that begun to descend, blocking their forward route.

Becker heard Abby's fiancée swear next to him and then there was only himself and Connor standing in the middle of the corridor with bewildered expressions as the current anomaly defence team ducked under the lowering barrier back into the control room.

The two men tilted their heads towards each other with identical raised eyebrows and with this passed a silent agreement that neither wished to be left out of the action.

They broke out into a sprint at the tiny gap left under the door; the soldier reached it first and gripped the bottom moments before it merged with the floor, rapidly turning a deep shade of red as the weight of the object hit him, "Connor!"

The scientist skidded to a halt and threw a gaze over the situation; there was no way both of them were getting under the door without crushing a limb or two, "Mate – there's no chance," He concluded as he lay on the ground to try and get a glimpse of what was happening in the other room, "Although I don't understand why they have a lock down programmed to an anomaly alert – how are they supposed to go out and lock it…"

Connor's voice faded out as his last words processed in his mind and a realisation emerged, "They did lock ours, right?"

The statement ended as a nervous question whilst he lifted his head to catch his friend's blood-drowned face which had a flicker of horror dawning upon its features; a strained tone replying, "I don't know."

However a shaking aggravated roar answered their question followed by a series of electrical bursts and their expressions quickly melted to ones of panic.

"Get it open!" Connor shouted as he pushed himself off the ground and tore open the rucksack on his friend's back, searching for anything they could use to restrain the downward motion enough to allow them both time to slip through.

Becker's muscles were screaming under the continued force and he could feel his arms start to shake, probing him to release a jerked gasp, "I can't hold it!"

The scientist flung another useless item down the corridor, his heart quickening with the increasing gunshots and pressuring cries from his friend when his hand dragged out a sturdy weapon that had the potential to hold the metal for a couple of seconds; yet a conflicted expression fell at the thought of destroying the object and his gaze flicked to the struggling soldier who would most likely have something to say about his idea – but another pre-historic cry convinced him it was a necessary sacrifice.

Sliding between the pair of pain arms Connor grabbed the edge of the metal in the task to gain more height so he could wedge the item underneath. Becker's eyes snapped open as he felt hair tickle his nose and on seeing his friend's actions an enraged tone joined the chaos emitting from behind the door, "Is that my axe!"

"It's the only thing that'll give us time to get through," The young man grunted in reply; he knew the soldier would have a fit over the endangerment of his precious weapon.

"I hand carved that!" The soldier groaned as his fingers clicked under the weight.

"I'll make you a new one."

"You can't carve."

"Well I'll watch you make a new one…" The scientists hissed through gritted teeth, his spare hand shoving against the vertically placed axe with full force. Suddenly it slid into place and with a delighted cry he flew under the door with a sharp push from his friend who collapsed on top of him; his foot just managing to make the journey safely.

"Shoot it!" Sounded the agitated bark of Lester and the two men snapped up their heads to the sight of an annihilated room; a couple of unconscious soldiers were buried under broken computers and desks, Abby was posed with her drawn weapon standing alongside Kevin protecting the tech girl and their boss behind a far pillar and Matt had a gun pointed at a very familiar creature trapped in the corner by a large cabinet crushing its tail.

Terror painted their features and simultaneous cries of 'No! 'Stop!' struck the walls as they scrambled to reach the pained raptor; Connor kneeling in front of the creature attempting to calm him while Becker covered them, his own gun aimed directly at the team leader.

A fearful gasp sprung in reaction to their movement and the soldier noted the petite blonde making to run towards the scientist but her fiancée restraining her in the corner of his eye; however his main focus was on the man who did not seemed impressed by his placement.

"I think you'll want to move out of the way," Matt said, giving his head a slight jerk to emphasise the point.

The soldier matched the alpha male tone and replied with a raised eyebrow, "I'm fine here, thanks."

Connor would have rolled his eyes at the stand-off yet his attention was currently preoccupied; Steve was in a full state of panic and wouldn't stay still long enough for him to reach his tail to free it – and to be honest Abby screaming at him to back away was not helping.

"Can you please shut up! Steve is scared enough without your input!" The sharp tone shocked his old friend to an area of speechlessness and he felt a tinge of guilt prick him at the hurt that crossed her face; but at least it had given slight more reassurance to the raptor who began to lower his frantic swings as the screaming disappeared.

A frown wiped over Matt at the comment, "You know the raptor? And you've named it?"

Becker's gaze gave away no emotion as he neutrally replied, "Yes – he's with us and he won't hurt anyone."

"It is a carnivorous beast, which whatever you may believe, you have no control over," The leader returned, a hardness adding to his tone, "And it is a hazard that needs to be contained – so once again, I'm going to ask you to move."

The scientist had now managed to obtain Steve's attention and he was assessing him with a cautious stare as if trying to confirm to himself that this was Connor standing before him in the strange, cold world.

Shifting his gun whilst taking a small step to block where Matt's weapon had changed its angle a dangerous tone sunk into his voice, "And I'm going to warn you – if you make a move to injure my raptor, I will shoot you."

A light scoff fell from the man's mouth as he glanced over the pathetic wooden object the soldier was aiming at him, and the corner of his lips jerked upwards with a hint of mockery in his response, "Oh really? With that toy gun of yours?"

Steve had accepted his friend to be who he seemed so he was now nudging at the scientists arm as the young man tried to lift the cabinet off the creature's tail.

Matt had crossed the line now; he was holding a unique and theoretically impossible weapon in his hands and he did not appreciate being patronised for it, "This 'toy gun' will do a lot more damage than your electrical junk."

"Alright then," A challenge slipping into his reply, it seemed this guy was not used to having someone block his orders, "Shoot me."

Becker fell short at this demand; he could hear Lester muttering something about working with children whilst he was sure Abby and Jess were still concentrating on how on earth Connor wasn't being currently eaten – yet he was just wondering if this guy in front of him was actually all there, "I'm not going to shoot you – just put your gun down!"

"Because you weapon is nothing but a stick of wood – go on, shoot."

"I'm not going to –"

"Shoot."

"Will you –"

"Shoot me."

Under normal circumstances the following incident would never have occurred; however Becker had just be thrown back into a modern world after five years, found out one of his friends was potentially dead, watched the beginning of Connor's childhood fears resurface and now had an arrogant new guy aiming a high voltage Taser at his closest friend and favourite raptor.

He shot.

Matt hit the ground with a sharp cry as a finely sculptured stone bullet sliced through his leg and the soldier registered the outraged exclamations at his action; seeing what he'd done some of the anger washed away and he threw the man staring up at him an apologetic look, "Sorry, but I did warn you – anyway it's just a flesh wound, no bone or muscle – it'll patch right up."

The leader was analysing him with an unreadable expression, one hand placed over the small hole in his leg which in honesty only felt like a light throb; however after a few moments his other hand edged towards the Taser lying a few inches from where he'd fell.

Becker tensed at the movement; preparing himself for some revengeful response but before he could do anything a newly freed raptor shot in front of him – bringing his sharp teeth right into Matt's face as if daring him to try anything.

"Although… the same can't be said for Steve," The soldier smugly added, amused by their creature's protective behaviour.

His fingers froze centre-meters from the edge of his weapon with the sudden furious carnivore in his personal space and his gaze rose to view the two strangers looking down at him.

"You have a trained raptor – and natural home-made guns?"

Becker resisted the urge to smirk so settled for an eye-brow quirk whilst Connor gave a modest little half-shrug.

A grin broke onto the team leader's face as he shook his head and laughed, "You know – I think I'm going to like you guys."

* * *

A/N: Did you spot the slight altered episode reference? :P

_Thank you for reading, hope you enjoyed :) x_


	4. Chapter 3

**Home-Bound**

**Disclaimer: Is never going to say anything different than the first time it was written**

**A/N: **Loving all of you reading and sticking with this - plus this is actually the first fic I've managed to stick to a weekly up-date with, which is quite an achievement for me :P Also you will now find that thanks to a friendly voice I have made the effort to correctly spell our favourite scientist's name - apologies if it was getting on your nerves :)

Hope you enjoy x

* * *

Chapter 3

"For a raptor that had to be pushed into a lake by two Ankylosaurus' – he sure loves the bath tub," Connor announced walking from the bathroom, wringing out yet another top the creature had managed to soak.

Becker glanced up from where he was sitting on the sofa smashing the hilt of his dagger on a stone to forge some new bullets, a slight frown gracing his features, "How does he even fit in it?"

"Well he doesn't," The scientist admitted, throwing a dry shirt over his head and making his way to explore the kitchen stock, "But he seems quite content keeping one leg in for a few minutes, switching to the other and then sticking his head in – oh and he likes the lavender bubble bath."

An airy chuckle left his mouth at the news, "Of course he does."

If only the team could witness these facts they wouldn't have had any argument about Steve being a vicious predator and red-flagged him to be held in the Menagerie for the safety of himself and others.

Because it had defiantly made it a lot harder to get him back to the flat.

However with a bit of hacking, a false alarm, two remote controlled sock porcupines, some under-hand trading for two delivery uniforms and a large truck – their raptor had been united with the wonders of a bath.

"I still can't believe you shot that guy," The scientist's laugh spread through the air, the passing glimpse of his friend creating more bullets reminding him of the incident yet again.

"Don't talk about it," He groaned, "To this day I had never purposefully injured a civilian and now it seems I'm just flinging shots everywhere."

Poking his head through the doorway Connor frowned at the comment, "I'd hardly classify him as a civilian."

"You know what I mean," Becker muttered, flinging his dagger onto the coffee table and abandoning the semi-completed stones; he could tell that his friend was about to delve deeper into the issue, but he wasn't up for presently doing that, weapon guilt was a trait he'd been trained to deal with privately so he diverted the conversation.

"Anyway, how are you doing – you seemed a bit overwhelmed back there."

Connor sighed and leant against the doorframe; he was aware the soldier wasn't content with his earlier actions and would be mentally punishing himself for a while, however he also knew that seeing as it was an incident involving guns – it will have been classified into the 'active duty' category meaning as a non-war man he would not obtain clear or truthful answers around his friends thoughts on the situation.

Hence being the only thing he could do to partially help; he accepted the changing topic to his emotions.

"I guess it was the sudden fluxgate in people," He shrugged, running a hand through his damp hair, "Just reminded me I'm not too fond of big crowds."

"But you were fine with all those people we met in different time zones," Becker pondered; at the time he'd forgotten that his friend hadn't simply experienced single human contact, the anomaly visits had found them interacting and chatting with a number of people and he'd been perfectly social then.

Connor crossed his arms, subconsciously folding in on himself, "Well that was different… I didn't know those people."

"But it's only Lester and Abby," He returned, leaning forward to rest his arms on his legs which angled his posture further into one of prompted listening.

"Exactly!" The scientist exclaimed, resting his head against the frame and flicking his gaze as if discussing the matter with the ceiling rather than the man on the sofa, "Its Lester and Abby – two people who are expecting me to act in a certain way… people who think they know me…"

Becker sighed; he understood what the young man meant, they definitely weren't alike to the personalities they'd left with five years ago, all had adapted and twisted to fit their situation but these alterations were too strong to just cancel out now that the situation had been fixed.

"They'll understand that we can't be the same people they once knew – nobody's going to ask us to pretend to be something we're not."

"But they are…" Connor breathed, pressing his palms over his eyes, "They may adjust and not outwardly do or say things that try and follow or tend towards how things used to be like earlier today but I'll see it in her eyes – I'll see the memories of who she wants to be talking to and know that I can't be that person… and I won't even feel guilt for not wanting to be that person because I'm happy with who I am now!"

The soldier didn't miss the change of pronoun in the sentence but decided to not pick up on it; his friend was distressed enough without him nit-picking his rant, "And you don't need to feel bad for that."

"What like you don't need to feel bad for shooting Matt," He sniped back.

Becker flinched but didn't retaliate – it had been a trying day and neither of them had fully come to terms with what was happening yet so emotions were bound to be running double.

However the scientist groaned and muttered a quick apology before returning into the kitchen; another annoyance being he had nowhere to go – normally when one of them got wound up there was a lake, forest or clear night sky to give them space and bring comfort, but now there was just loud cars, ugly buildings and polluted air… hardly relaxation factors.

The flat itself had been a reluctant yet grateful accessory; Lester had it lying spare so was allowing them to presently use it – although he had provided a rather extensive list of ground rules, so they weren't too keen on seeing how he'd react if he discovered he was also housing a carnivorous dinosaur.

In hindsight the issue of housing arrangements had already caused enough tension without the bonus 'Steve' matter; clearly the soldier needed somewhere to sleep since his old place had been on rent so now held new occupants – but it wasn't his situation that had manifested the problem.

* * *

" – and finally, do not think I won't notice bullet holes in my wall!" Lester finished, handing the distracted soldier a ten page list on how to be a proper guest at his accommodation; an action which snapped the man from his daydream.

"Yes, of course." Becker replied with a sharp nod, attempting to keep his gaze from faltering under his fatigue; it had been a long day consisting mostly of numerous medical checks despite their arguments that they had been on their own for five years and not died from a cold yet – plus they still had Steve to break out.

Lester's fingers were still clenched around the edge of the paper and the soldier had to jerk it from his grip; it seemed the memory of a certain scientist flat-mate was picking doubts at his generosity.

Moving past the apprehensive man he clapped a hand on his shoulder and leant in to whisper, "I'll keep an eye on him," Before continuing on the exit route, leaving Lester to sigh and retreat to his office in an attempt to not dwell on the potential risk he was submitting his flat to.

Connor, who had been discussing modern alterations and hinting potential improvements to the ADD with the friendly tech girl, glanced up as he heard his friend's footsteps heading out and offering her a brief nod in farewell, quickly jogged to join the soldier.

However, the scientist's movement caught the attention of Abby; which wasn't a difficult fate since she'd none too subtly been throwing constant eye-line in his direction for the past hour whilst seemingly completing a pile of paperwork.

"Where are you going?" She enquired; the genuine confusion in her tone confirmed by the light dip on her forehead.

Both men paused and turned to the question; although it was clear as to whom she had been indicating.

No expression change featured over Connor at the obstacle, it seemed that despite his ability to read anything and everything about the friend standing on his right, this hadn't transpired as a flexible gift since while the remaining occupants of the room cast uncomfortable shuffles and suddenly became very busy with many an 'important' task; the scientist seemed generally blind to where the petite blonde's words were likely to lead.

"A spare flat of Lester's," He replied, holding up the key he'd taken off Becker, "We're going to bunk there for a bit."

The scientist assumed that had been the answer she'd wanted as he'd made to spin on his back heel towards the door, however the lack of movement offered from the soldier halted his action and he threw a confusion glance, which was returned with a small head inclination towards their young friend.

"But I thought –" Her gaze flicked to the few desk workers who were definitely not listening to the conversation, "Well, I don't live in the old apartment anymore - but I have a spare room and I assumed…"

She let her sentence drift apart, her fingers fiddling in front of her lap as she stood before the desk looking expectantly up at the young scientist.

A spread of realisation washed over Connor's features and he shot his friend an apologetic smile, "Oh right, yeah – sorry, I didn't think you'd want us cluttering up your house and we didn't want to be any kind of burden; but don't worry we'll be good at Lester's – I'm sure it'll be a lot easier without him actually there this time."

Becker could have slapped the scientist across the back of the head at the use of 'we'; it wasn't hard to miss the deflation in Abby's gaze at the personal pronoun and the forced laugh she followed with his little joke. Although in Conner's defense, he'd never been good at picking up girls' signals and the petite blonde had been even worse at giving him decisive ones, so she really couldn't have expected that aspect to improve after five years of not seeing her.

"Actually, I'd been thinking more of how it used to be," She re-tried, closing in her space so she didn't have to talk across the room, "You know – when the two of us used to share a place."

Some actual insight into what Abby was discussing lit within the scientist's gaze at the statement and he swallowed, tensing as she took his hand in a gesture that once was so natural between them, "But what about Becker?"

"He can still stay at Lester's," She replied; seemingly forgetting the soldier was currently placed a mere few inches away from her.

Connor frowned at this flippant response, a vulnerable yet protective quality entering his voice, "But I can't leave him alone."

"Why?" She matched, "He can look after himself."

"You don't understand Abby – we have –"

"Of course I understand – you guys had to protect each other, but you're back now; everything can start going back to normal again."

"It's been five years! What's your definition of normal?"

"Not running away from your old life and ways for one thing!"

"Running away? We arrived this morning! You can't expect me to suddenly act like I haven't been living with dinosaurs all this time."

"Of course not! But I also don't want you to think you can just start avoiding your best friend from day one!"

"But you're not my–"

Becker quickly smothered Connor's mouth before he really hurt the blonde's feelings; it seemed their ability to argue hadn't changed.

He could understand why Abby was being so drastic and demanding in attempting to re-build what had been stolen all those years ago – it had been an un-fulfilled life taken from her, a path that had been suddenly blocked however much she had wanted to explore it.

Now suddenly those opportunities had re-kindled, and although the soldier knew that his old friend was aware that dynamics had changed with the passing time and she should try adjusting to add Connor to the new equation around her fiancée rather than attempt to continue a life that had long disappeared; he also knew that this was all a big shock to her system and it was unlikely her mind would except all these new changes straight away.

"Look, Lester's already gone to the trouble of arranging the flat for us," Becker interrupted, removing his hand from the scientist's mouth, "And we don't know Kevin so I don't think he'd be too comfortable having two pre-historic strangers moving in with you both."

The soldier's words sent a pointed message to the young blonde; informing her that there wasn't going to be a chance of him and Connor splitting whilst also reminding her of the fiancée she now had – something that had slipped her mind as she'd got caught up in a sensation of time before they'd disappeared from the look of shock that passed her features.

They'd made a quick exit here; Becker dragging the scientist by the elbow and leaving their friend with her inner struggle over two sets of feelings from different time periods – Connor would have stayed to try and comfort plus apologise to the young woman for his outburst but the soldier had wanted to move onto retrieving their raptor so he could go to bed, and just like Abby's loyalties had changed over these years, so had his – it was just that he had excepted this whereas she had still yet to adjust.

* * *

Becker could hear the slamming of cupboard doors, obviously Connor also wasn't appreciating being cooped up; although the dramatic noise was probably partially related to the lack of food to actually find in the kitchen - he'd been in there earlier and Lester had an unusually large amount of shelves, which was daunting enough for two people who'd just had singular meat and veg areas without the added fact that most of them were empty storage.

A frown slid onto his features at the thought of reasoning behind his friends annoyance, it had been the trending towards the word 'she' that was the cause of the kitchens beating; clearly a strong matter here lay around their blonde friend – which was hardly surprising, however these thoughts of Abby swirling around his head… it was leading onto another character that he thought may be a potential problem – the new fiancée.

It wasn't surprising that she had a guy; it had been five years so waiting around for an almost boyfriend who was supposedly dead wouldn't have been logical in the least. But the soldier was aware to the extent of which Connor had doted on the young blonde; the first year of late night conversations revolving around her beauty and flawlessness was evidence enough – so he was finding it difficult to judge his friend's response to the news.

He may have appeared neutral, and to truth after that first year he'd stopped talking about Abby in the romantic sense; but the solider still felt a double-assessment was in order.

"Heads up!"

Becker's arm reflexively snapped up at the shout and a cool beer collided with his hand, "It may not be your 2050 special, but it's something," Connor added, entering the room with his own bottle in grip; a grimace on his face as the bitter taste stuck to the inside of his mouth.

The soldier's features reflected the expression on taking a swig and he lifted the bottle to examine the label, "I don't remember our beer being this bad – at least that's one thing that improves with time."

Connor slumped next to him on the sofa, "And ice-cream, don't forget the ice-cream."

Becker chuckled and a comfortable silence fell over them, the only noise being loud splashes echoing from the bathroom; it seemed the frustration had faded within the scientist and after a few stretched minutes the soldier glanced to his friend who, in response, spun himself to sit cross-legged facing the man, sensing he had a yet another sensitive topic he wanted to approach.

"So," He cut to it, "Abby and Kevin."

No more was needed than those few words; the scientist understood that his friend was hinting for re-assurance of his mental well-being and luckily one of the many personality switches that had formed from living together in the past was the ability to forget disagreements; meaning he wasn't going to not answer the implied question simply because a few minutes ago the soldier's previous inquiry had riled him.

"I knew something of the sort would have happened," Connor shrugged, forgetting how awful the beer tasted and taking another mouthful, "Ugh – but yeah, I was prepared… so it wasn't a massive shock when Kevin got introduced."

Becker nodded at the answer; he hadn't realised his friend had contemplated Abby's status for if they returned, he'd assumed the scientist had just made the attempt of fully casting her from his thoughts – so this now led to another wonder, "Then how do you feel about him?"

Connor smiled into his lap; it felt strange having personal discussions in a flat sitting within their time era since the last time they were here this would have never occurred; they hadn't been that close.

"Smart guy – needs a haircut but a good fashion style when it comes to glasses frames…" He drifted off at Becker's pointed look and switched to the answer the soldier was searching for with an exaggerated sigh, "Honestly – I don't care."

The eyebrow raised and in return Connor's tone rose a fraction, "No really I don't – it's been five years mate, after all we've seen and accomplished even if those feelings for her had survived all this time it wouldn't work. Like I was saying – she has a different memory of me - the bumbling geek who stumbled into a cool dinosaur team and got to stay by pure chance – but that's not me anymore… and I doubt she'll be able to handle me being a completely different person as well as us returning – I mean you saw how she was."

Becker was surprised his friend had actually noticed Abby's 'waiting for the past' behavior, he'd thought the scientist had been oblivious and apparently his expression was showing these thoughts as Connor smirked with a laced accusation, "You thought I didn't pick up on why she wanted me to take her spare room."

The soldier allowed a small hint of guilt to graze his features, "Well you were never the most perceptive."

"I think you mistake lack of perception for subtly marked false innocence , "Connor joked, jumping the back of the sofa and heading to where the splashing had ceased, "A spot of naivety gives you the opportunity to learn and get away with so much more than a head on approach ever would."

"And here I always thought of you as an oblivious little boy," Becker smirked; nothing more to be said around the matter of Abby – clearly his friend knew where he stood so any potential problems would come from the blonde's side, and they were for her to sort out.

Picking up the mildly drunken bottles he went to go and drain them as they weren't even worth drinking for the sake of drinking alcohol; and continued to tune into the scientist's fading voice, "Because that's part of the ruse – why do you think so many of the anomaly residents we met offered me food all the… Ah, Steve mate! Why?"

The frustration piped the soldier's curiosity and his hands released the bottles into the sink as his legs dragged him to the bathroom; although arrival was a bit more difficult than assumed seeing as the door was hidden behind a thick blanket of lavender scented bubbles.

"You do remember the concept of bubble bath?" Becker smirked, finding humor in the sight of his friend covered in the white substance as he flailed around in attempt to locate the door handle.

The implied glare didn't have the intended effect with the suds so he had to instead push the sarcasm harder into his tone, "That's funny – you're funny, you know that?"

"Do you think you can charge a raptor dry-cleaning? Because at this rate you may want to consider it," He continued, failing to hold back a laugh as the scientist slipped and sunk into the bubbles.

"Hey – you know, maybe you could actually help - rather than practice your comedy routine," Replied an unseen annoyed voice, although the direction could be guessed from the mass of dancing suds in the far corner.

Half of Becker really wanted to not help and continue watching his friend dive around like a sea-washed animal, but instead he allowed himself an extra chuckle before gracefully stepping through the mess and catching the door knob in his hand on the first try, satisfying a soft click in result.

"I hate you," Connor's bodiless head mumbled as it popped into view at the sound of the opening door.

"Join the army and then maybe you'll have the skill to walk through some bubbles."

"It's got nothing to do with the army!" The scientist complained, pushing himself towards the discovered door but slipping once again, only to be caught by the reflex-man's outstretched arm and have to dis-gruntingly be pulled safely over, "You're just some kind of wizard!"

"Don't go shouting that too loud – being tied to a pyre and almost burnt alive was fine just the once thanks," He shuddered at the memory; Connor had stupidly shown one of his gadgets to the Puritan villages priest, so of course it had been the soldier who'd announced it was his device and taken the wrath of the witch-hunt resulting in his near death, which he still blamed his young friend for even if he did save him just before they dropped the torch – he'd told him not to go showing futuristic items to past generations.

"I said sorry!" Connor whined, falling against his friend with another foot slip.

Catching the man, he pushed his weight against the door and shoved him through, "And you can keep saying it."

The scientist comically slid across the bathroom floor at the pressure whilst Becker stepped over his groaning form, shaking his head at the raptor which was responsible for the flood, "You having fun there Steve?"

The creature had his back to them but on hearing the familiar voice his head sunk down between his legs so he could see the visitors and he let out a gentle growl; the bubble beard on his face vibrating under the action.

Crawling off the tiles, Connor sent a glare at the tilted gaze with reprimand lacing his tone, "Young man, if you think I'm going to cleaning this up – you've got another thing-"

The threat was cut short by a large snort sending a fountain of bubbles straight at the scientist's face followed by a low rumble in the raptors version of a laugh.

Slowly wiping the suds from his features his glare switched to the soldier who was taking amusement at the situation rather than doing anything productive; however Becker simply laughed and ruffled more bubbles into the young man's hair, "Don't look at me – he gets the cheek from your side of the family."

"Lucky me," Connor sighed, giving up trying to stay annoyed and flopping back into the blanket of bubbles; perhaps they could hide the clean-up cost under Lester's electricity bill.

* * *

_Thank you for reading :) x_


	5. Chapter 4

**Home-bound**

**Disclaimer: Not going to change from the already stated**

* * *

Chapter 4

Connor curled his fingers as they hit yet another red light; how people got anywhere on time with these blasted obstacles looming every few feet was beyond him – what he would give for the open-stretched forest right now.

They hadn't been entirely sure as to whether they were expected back at the ARC the next day, but on being woken to banging on their door and a clean-cut Matt announcing he was driving them to work seeing as they didn't have a vehicle; it gave them a good enough answer.

Truthfully, the lack of transport wasn't very accurate, but they could hardly inform the man that there was a stolen government truck that had been used to illegally transport a pre-historic dinosaur hidden around the corner that they could use – so they had no choice but to except the offer and hope Steve wouldn't mind their sudden departure; it wasn't as if they could leave him a note.

So now the scientist was sitting in the back of a commercially licensed black SUV attempting to restrain from kicking Matt out of the driver's seat and slamming down the acceleration; or at least throw something at Becker's head for his ability to not show he was also bothered by the lack of speed – which he knew was the case since they would have drained their accounts dry from the number of speeding tickets the soldier should have earned during the raptor break in the early hours of the morning.

"Are we nearly there yet?" Connor couldn't help ask; ignoring the smirk he was granted for the childish question.

"Just a couple more turns," The team leader replied, flicking his gaze to the wing mirror, "Funny though – people are normally complaining about my reckless driving, not demanding why I'm taking so long."

Becker chuckled at the comment, "But you're not usually chauffeur to a reckless safety-hazard drag racer," He added, twisting around so his friend could witness the full effect of the mocking eyebrow.

"You survived," The scientist muttered, not appreciating the reminder of the incident that was now forever held over his head.

"Only because the wheel got caught in a tree root," He returned, "Otherwise I would have been road-kill all because _someone_ didn't want to admit they hadn't ridden a motorbike before."

"I had ridden one!" Connor exclaimed, somehow allowing himself to get dragged back into the on-going argument.

"A moped doesn't count."

"Yes it does – it's exactly the same concept!"

"One's for students needing to get around university and the others for speed-junkies needing the wind in their hair."

"That's describing the riders – it's not related to how the bikes work."

"They're completely different machines –"

"What? Two wheels, a seat, a handle, breaks, acceleration and an engine – yeah how could I even fathom putting them in the same category."

"Well if they're so similar – how'd you manage to turn the motorbike into a death-trap?"

"It was different technology! How was I supposed to –"

"You guys had motorbikes in the Crectaeous period?"

The sudden unregistered tone snapped both men from the familiar debate and they blinked, turning to face the man they'd forgotten was still in the car with them. Becker recovered first and spun to settle forward in his chair, mentally scolding himself for revealing facts he'd been planning to keep quiet as he answered the query with a reluctant casualness, "We got them from a future anomaly."

The soldier was expecting this information to result in a threat of informing the higher-ups of their actions or at least a verbal reprimand on how they shouldn't have been messing with time-lines that they had no place in; but surprisingly, the team leader grinned at them like a child who'd managed to make friends with the popular kids in school, "That's so cool."

Connor sent a puzzled look to his friend through the wing mirror, who returned it by subtly shaking his head and biting down on his lip to hold back a laugh; he would never have pegged Matt as the eager boy type, more the serious 'rules and regulations' leader.

However the young scientist wasn't going to let pass an intimidating gun-man thinking he was cool; it'd hardly be a reaction he'd ever get from Becker, "Yeah well – we got quite a bit of stuff, actually you should see some of the things I made –"

"Oh look we're here!" The soldier over-energetically interrupted, jumping out of the car and opening his friend's door, "Thanks for the lift," He quickly offered as he dragged a startled Connor from his seat, slamming the metal shut to leave a wary Matt to direct the SUV further into the car-park.

Shaking the grip off his shirt, the young man shot his friend a disgruntled glare, "What was that for?"

"Stopping your idolisation from doing some serious damage," Becker hissed with a light whack over the head, "Be careful how much you tell people."

"It was only Matt! He thinks our stuffs cool – plus you're the one who was blabbering about our bikes," The scientist argued, following the soldier into the building whilst rubbing the throb in his skull; his friend may think the playful action was gentle but he never took his muscled upper arms into account – one day he'd be the cause of some serious brain damage, although he would probably just excuse it by claiming the scientist had always been brain damaged.

"Well I'm used to it only being you around, plus he may think it's cool – but he could easily change his mind and decide we've broken set protocols," Becker murmured, ushering his friend through the main entrance while glancing around for anyone in hearing range, one mistaken slip about their messing around with anomalies was enough for the day, "Or he could off-handedly mention it around Lester – and it wouldn't be very hard for him to simply unlock our anomaly lying in the middle of their building and send in a team to destroy the contamination of a pre-historic time period."

Realisation of the soldier's thought-track dawned over the young man and he grabbed his friend's wrist, his tone slipping to a volume that had Becker wince; thankful the corridor was empty, "But the rest of the guys would be torn to pieces if the security system was ripped down!"

"Hence," He muttered through a fake smile as they turned the corner and passed a duo of guards, "We need to keep knowledge of the extensity of our house and gadgets to a bare minimum – nobody will question a few home-built guns if they believe we're holding the only ones we have, and we'll just have to hope Matt doesn't mention the motorbikes; though we could still probably get away with them under 'necessary safety essentials'."

Connor raised an eyebrow, "You really think our bikes could be classified as 'necessary safety essentials'?"

"Well I'd hardly be able to say they're for our weekly drag racing competition," He drawled with a teasing smirk; however the expression faded the second he entered the hub. While the scientist dealt with his discomfort of their forgotten time-zone by reassuring himself of the soldier's presence, Becker hid it behind the neutral features and dis-connected army façade – or as his friend had once called it, the 'I can't believe I'm allowing myself to stand among these idiots' expression; although that could have simply been coincidental with him standing next to Connor at the time.

The control center was raring with life; a strange sight to witness at such an early hour since in the old days you were lucky enough to sight half of the main anomaly team, let alone all the support staff running around hurrying to get paperwork sorted – it seemed the laid-back attitude had long disappeared.

"Right," The sharp tone of their boss echoed, the man suddenly emerging from his office with excellent timing as if he'd been staring though his window waiting for them to walk through the door – which in fact he had, "Would someone like to explain to me why I am unaccounted for in one velociraptor?"

Neither could remember the last time they had felt the sensation of being naughty children caught red-handed with their fingers in the cookie jar, but this felt close enough.

"You put Steve in the Menagerie with the rest of the creatures," Connor replied seeing as he held the best voice of innocence.

Placing his hands behind his back, Lester took a couple of steps forward with a dis-believing glint, "Yet somehow – he doesn't seem to be there."

The scientist shook his head with an emphasised sigh, "Well it's not our responsibility to make sure you keep track of the creatures in your care," Then with a slight smirk at sensing an opportunity to snide his friend for the racing accident reminder, the young man slapped the soldier on the back pushing him towards their boss and announced, "But if you _are_ having some security issues with the Menagerie, Becker will be able to give you some advice and I may be able to offer a bit of input… what – oh you need my help Abby? Yeah I'll come do that."

Before the soldier could fully contemplate the situation his friend had just thrown him in; Connor was already running out of the room with a surprised but pleased petite blonde, leaving Becker to turn to Lester's awaiting gaze and take the task of continuing the lie, "He's right – probably a security glitch."

The scientist sniggered at his little form of revenge, "I'll take that," He automatically offered as he reached Abby, taking the box of files from her grip and stepping backwards through the exit to take humor from his friend being directed into Lester's office for what was going to be a very long and diverting meeting.

However his self-victory rapidly began to decrease as he realised using his old friend as an escape route may not have been the best idea; years ago it would have been easy, he'd run over, they'd laugh about what he'd just done and go to find some work to do together – but that was then, and this is now.

"So…" Connor swallowed, glancing around the corridor for topic inspiration, which was a hard achievement unless over time Abby had grown to be interested by the workings of ventilation systems.

Fortunately the young blonde wasn't experiencing the same difficulties, "Good evening?"

"Hmm – oh yeah, well it was until –" He quickly caught himself before he started to reiterate Steve's bath-time adventure, Abby may love all forms of creatures but he doubted from yesterday's reaction that she'd be too pleased to learn he was living with the raptor, "But anyway – how about you?"

She frowned at the odd answer but didn't comment on it, "Nothing much, watched a movie – ate some chinese…"

"Cool," He couldn't remember the last time he'd been stuck in a conversation that was this awkward.

A few uncomfortable seconds passed where Abby tried to catch his eye and the scientist purposefully tried to avoid this occurrence until the young blonde got annoyed and sighed, "Look Connor – I'm sorry about yesterday, I shouldn't have expected so much of you when you'd literally just walked back into your home time."

He wasn't entirely sure where his old friend was heading with this so he decided to stick to a brief nod, "That's okay."

It seemed indeed Abby hadn't quite finished as she took this reply as a sign to continue, "It's just – we were so close and I've missed that… you don't know how much I've missed that – and I get that you and Becker will have this strong bond now, but I just hope that – well eventually we'll grow back to that place we used to be – because that's how it always was… you and me."

Connor had been hopeful about this topic on the opening line, however it had spiraled and left him unsure as how to respond; of course a part of him missed Abby and her unique friendship, but her mind-track still seemed to be hung up on reverting time back to how things once were – not adapting how they'd ended up.

"Abby…" He sighed, pushing through into a lab with her name labeled on the door, "I get what you're saying – and of course I've missed you… you were my best friend and it was hard not seeing you or knowing how you were – but you do understand that even if we can build on things now… nobody can pick up straight from the past."

The end of the sentence was spoken into the box he placed on a corner desk, his hair flopping into his eyes as he kept his head down; he could feel his throat drying up as the tension in the room built – this was not a conversation he'd wanted to fall into on his own, of course he'd known he would have to find Abby and discuss matters with her; but in his mind he'd planned Becker to be with him.

"Were?" The feminine tone cracked and Connor turned to see that moisture was growing in the young blonde's eyes; women's emotions were definitely something the scientist had not had to deal with in a long time – living with a soldier didn't leave you with many tear-jerking, crying on the shoulder moments.

"No – I mean…" Stumbling over his words he held his arms out as if the action would help stop her from crying, he was sure he used to be good at the whole emotional comforting thing, "You and I are best friends – but in the sense of who I used to be five years ago… whereas, well now I'm different and you're different – so can't really be classified as best friends… not that I wouldn't want to – but Becker already knows me now and… well –"

He ran out of words to string together that vaguely could pass as some kind of point; especially as he really didn't understand what he was trying to say – however apparently he did have a point since Abby caught onto it.

"So you're saying we could build what we used to have – just starting from who we are now?" She smiled, closing the distance between them with her tears subtly altering to ones of happiness rather than despair.

Connor didn't think that was what he'd been trying to say but he had no time to tell the young woman this as he suddenly found himself wrapped tightly between two arms, a damp face resting in the nape of his neck.

"I'm still finding it hard to believe you're really here," She whispered, her voice tickling his skin, "I could hardly sleep last night – I thought the whole day may have just been a dream."

How was he supposed to inform her that he didn't believe they could ever have something similar to what had once been, and that part of him didn't want the effort of trying to re-kindle that friendship when she was in this kind of state?

"Well – it's not…" The scientist mumbled, stiffly raising his arms to pat the petite blonde on her back; did her hugs always used to feel like she was attempting to crush the life out of him?

"But don't worry," She added, lifting her head so it was inches in front of his, her arms still wrapped around his neck, "I'm not expecting us to try and pick up any kind of relationship, thing – I just want my best friend back."

He managed to return the gentle smile, knowing he was dealing with an Abby who wasn't seeking him out as a boyfriend gave him some reassurance even if it she still thought she could become his confidant once more.

Connor opened his mouth to yet again attempt to explain the situation of them probably never having the same friendship that once existed when a firm cough broke his effort and his gaze snapped past the blonde's head to catch sight of a less-than-impressed Kevin standing, arms folded and feet firmly planted in the lab doorway.

"Sweetheart – you're needed in section two," The sentiment may have been caring and casual but the hardness in his gaze had the scientist snapping his arms to his sides at rapid speed and mentally urging the young woman to unfold herself from him.

Abby angled her head to sight the voice of her fiancée, "Okay," Turning back to the scientist she gave him another hug, which felt very uncomfortable seeing as his hands were now dangling by his sides, before picking up a shoulder bag and heading to the door.

Kevin kissed her gently on the cheek when she reached him and placed an affectionate arm around her shoulder, a glaze of adoration in his eyes; the guy really was smitten with her. However on turning into the corridor this heart-warming expression disappeared and Connor was met with a fiery glare that gave him the desire to try and also explain to this man that he didn't want to try and re-build the closeness that once existed between Abby and him, he wasn't attempting to steal his fiancée – but seeing as he couldn't even divulge the words to the young blonde he highly doubted the message would translate to Kevin.

Fortunately a man can glare for only so long when exiting a room and the scientist quickly found himself alone once again; releasing a breath he hadn't realised he was holding, he flopped against the cold desk – how on earth there used to be a time when he dealt with all these people and relationships was beyond him.

* * *

The rest of the morning had passed in a dull drab of hours, which one wouldn't think possible for a man who'd been living in a forest for five years and suddenly been placed back in his modern time; however office work was nothing in comparison to playing tag with a raptor.

Nobody gave him actual paperwork, either because they thought he deserved some time to settle back in or they just believed he would mess it up; so he'd spent most of the hours camped out in a ventilation shaft above the control room using materials he'd found in one of the storage rooms to add some updates to one of the self-built guns.

The ventilation shaft was because it was the only place in the building where someone couldn't walk over and start interviewing him or offering congratulations on his return; those topics were bad enough without the speakers being complete strangers which confused him to why they would even care.

Becker had been kept in Lester's office for an hour; the scientist had become so agitated he'd actually gone and willingly started a conversation with Jess just so he could keep an eye on his friend through the glass.

However when the soldier had finally exited the room and begun to make a bee-line for Connor, seemingly also not entirely comfortable allowing the young man out of sight; which was natural for two people who had been living in a life and death environment for five years, Matt had cut the path and asked Becker to do his own check over the building's security system. The scientist had tried to follow but the team leader had apologised informing him that the layout had a need to know basis.

So that had been why he'd been left as prey to the curious staff and hence taken refuge in the ceiling; although the factor of tipping point had been that Kevin had started following him around clearly wanting a 'stay away from my woman' confrontation and Connor did not have the will to alight another fake conversation to avoid him.

"Stupid wire," He hissed as the sharp metal sliced his finger, he may have the capability to build items in the pitch black since light-stands hadn't been his first project in the forest but that didn't mean he was perfect.

In reaction the thin wire dropped from his grip and he mentally cursed, sighing he slid the rest of the gun to the side; after three hours there wasn't much more he could add to it anyway – unless he wanted to give it a detonation button, but he didn't see what situation that would be useful in.

Shifting so he was lying on his stomach, legs bent upwards behind him, he spied down into the control room.

Activity seemed almost identical to how it had been the last time he'd looked; Jess was tapping away on the ADD, although the key movement gave him the impression she was playing some form of game rather than doing actual work, various desk staff were flittering around with so many files he was sure some of them must be for impression rather than containing important documents and there was a tech kneeling next to the anomaly locking device checking that it was still functioning properly.

The last guy caught Connor's attention as it moved his eyes back onto the glowing cracks that held the existence of his other life behind them; just looking at the anomaly stirred something in his chest and he found himself having to blink back a couple of stray tears.

He knew it had only just been over twenty-four hours since they'd stepped back into this time-era and logically the pulling sensation towards the crack could be put down to him not yet having sufficient time to settle back into his original period; however within him he knew this not to simply be a need of rehabilitation.

From the moment they'd stepped out of the forest Connor had this time-zone labeled under the same title as all those other anomalies they'd jump through to have an explore; as each second past he was waiting for the moment they'd take a final sweep, announce there was nothing extra to be done and head back to their house – rearranging any new items they'd collected and being welcomed by an excited collection of dinosaurs.

If the scientist had ventured here alone, he would have already shoved his way past the array of government workers the second Steve had scented them down and run back to the house, but in reality the young man had his friend to consider; and however uncomfortable this place made him, he was never going to abandon Becker.

The problem was he wasn't positive to the soldier's view on the matter, he's thoughts were never as visually clear and even though he knew it to be the sensible option, he didn't want to outright ask for his opinion in fear that the reply would be 'yes, I want to stay'.

"For goodness sake there used to be a time I couldn't get him out of my sight and now he decides to be the invisible man," Lester's grumble tore the scientist's attention back to general focus and he witnessed the man entering the room with a set frown highlighting his features, "Connor!"

The young man flinched at the shout and curled inwards; the volume of that tone was sure to drag curious ears into the hub and he really didn't enjoy being marked as a center of topic.

As suspected, the call indeed summoned Abby followed by her fiancée to appear from one of the corridors and Jess to pause her computer game and spin around to face the boss; these people didn't know when to admit they weren't involved in a situation.

"I haven't seen him since early this morning," Jess offered with a slight shrug, "He was chatting to me about the ADD."

"Yes, but that doesn't tell me where he is now," Lester sniped, snapping his gaze individually over each occupant as if the scientist may be standing right in front of him and he hadn't noticed.

Without even blinking at her boss' sharp tone, the petite blonde pitched in, "I'm sure he'll be around somewhere – what do you need? Perhaps I can do it."

"Unless you're expertise have suddenly changed to the laws of science and technology over-night I highly doubt it," He returned and spotting the words on the edge of Kevin's tongue he added, "And no, you still need to get that buzzing thing finished for the minister next week."

Some light footsteps brought another voice into the conversation, "I could find him over the security footage if you're desperate," Matt joked, slapping a hand on his boss' shoulder as he walked past.

Connor was beginning to think the team had physic links to one another with this ability of all appearing at the same time when in need of answers and he was about to begin shuffling along the shaft to leave them to their pondering when a familiar tone he'd been in-admittedly worrying about arrived behind the team leader.

"Find who?" He asked, slotting a gun he'd been studying into his belt and surveying the collection of people in the room.

"You roommate," Lester replied, turning his annoyance onto the soldier, "He does realise that me allowing him to retain his old job does actually imply he works."

The scientist smirked at the almost unidentifiable condescending expression that fell over his friend as his gaze subtly flicked around the room, pausing for an extra second on the ventilation cover before continuing to look to the people surrounding him, "So nobody can find him?"

A quick patter of keys had Jess give an answer, "I've run a footage search and called in the ID bracelet tracker but I'm getting nothing – I don't think he's in the building."

Becker rolled his eyes at the conclusion and walked towards the tech girl's station, muttering to nobody in particular, "I'd be a poor excuse for a soldier if you did."

Leaping up onto the desk, he ignored the confusion gazes and gave a few taps on the ceiling with his knuckle, "Hey genius, think you could share some of that knowledge rather than hermit it on your gun?"

The room seemed to be of belief that the dinosaurs may have left something not quite right in the soldier's head as he stood on a desk chatting to roof tiles; however a sudden crash flung open a ventilation cover and a boyish face popped into view, "It was your gun actually."

"Last time you made changes to mine it back-fired in my face," Becker complained, stepping down from the furniture to give his friend room to drop down head-first, catch his feet on the edges of the shaft so he was swinging mid-air before completing an acrobat spin and landed in a cat-like crouch at the soldier's legs.

"Simple mistake," He replied, straightening out but not stepping away from his friend.

"You've been in the vents?" Lester sighed, dragging a hand over his face, "Fine, fine! We'll all just start using the building like a personal jungle gym – I could even add a slide and climbing frame…"

Holding out a file he faded from his annoyance and ordered, "Just go to one of the labs and have a look at this."

Connor inwardly cursed his friend for being able to guess his position, earning him work in a social environment and he could tell Becker sensed this as he gave him a light shove, directing him towards their boss.

"Sure thing," He stated, taking the file and continuing on a straight exit before anyone could start talking to him again; pleased when Becker appeared at his side and followed him from the room.

"Have fun in the weapon cupboard?"

"It was alright – although nothing compared to the stuff they'll have in seventy years."

The scientist smirked and glanced at his friend from the corner of his eye, "I'm guessing you didn't tell them that."

"I think they would have been offended by the very thought of their guns not being top quality," Becker chuckled; nudging the young man to a door he was about to walk by and gesturing him inside.

Connor froze at the movement and slight panic crept into his features, "You're not staying?"

"Nah I'm good," He replied, but the wide gaze that fell on the scientist with those words had his tone lose the teasing, "I'm only joking – I just want to grab some food, I haven't eaten yet and I doubt you have either," Ruffling his friend's hair so he could laugh at the annoyed expression that appeared he pushed him into the room and jogged down the corridor, "I'll just be a minute."

The scientist scowled at the retreating figure, entering the lab and leaning down to use one of the metal containers to re-adjust his bird nest hair.

Sighing on realising that his hair had been a mess anyway so there wasn't much of a difference, he slid the file onto the desk and spread the paper out; he hadn't work on a project that hadn't been from his head or Becker's suggestion in a long time and he wasn't entirely sure how to go about following someone else's instructions.

The huff of the door echoed into the room and Connor smiled, "Well that was quick –" However on raising his head in expectance of the familiar soldier he instead found the sight of an agenda-ridden Kevin.

The scientist's upturned mouth faltered as he was faced with the low-esteemed fiancée he'd been avoiding all morning; from what he'd witnessed hiding up in the vent the man seemed to be a very nice guy, he was funny, generous, well-liked by everyone in the building – however not everyone in the building was Abby's newly found kind of boyfriend who in technicality she'd never actually broken up with. So he doubted the same friendly attitude would be applied to him.

"Hey – um, can I help you with something?" Connor stuttered, slowly taking a few steps back to place a desk between them.

Kevin entered the room and let the door swing close behind him before speaking, "Look, I get that it must be confusing for you trying to come to grips with the different time-lines in your head."

The man certainly got straight to the point and despite the fact he left a pause for the scientist to make a comment, Connor didn't take it as he hadn't been very good with words so far today and didn't want to risk getting himself into further trouble.

Seeing there was going to be no response Kevin continued, "I get that – but what I need you to get is that Abby is my fiancée now, us – not you and her – us."

He nodded at the man's words and he found his mouth making a reply without permission, "Yes – of course, you two – though it wasn't really that she was ever mine anyway… not that – not that I didn't want her to be – she's a lovely woman… just we weren't – and now, well –"

Connor could tell from the man's expression that once again what he'd been trying to say had not correctly come across and he suddenly found a defensive fiancée a bit too far into his personal space.

"Don't go trying to confuse her! You were five years ago and I understand that seeing you will mess with her head for a bit – but she doesn't need you hugging and flirting to make it all that much harder," He warned, his gaze showing him to be feeling threatened by Abby's old passion and that combined with his obvious protective quality making him someone the scientist really didn't want to be in this much proximity to.

A stern cough suddenly broke through the one person stare off; one person since it concluded of Kevin trying to out-stare a man who was looking anywhere but at the pair of hardened eyes and both heads snapped around to a soldier with a frighteningly threatening aura emitting off him, standing in the doorway with two coffees and a bag of snacks in his hold.

"Is something wrong?" Becker asked in a tone that suggested if something was amiss a bullet may be released, as he placed his items on the table and approached the two men.

Kevin's face drained of a high quantity of blood as the soldier stepped towards him and he swallowed as his gaze caught the slight twitch of a hand over the gun holstered on the man's belt, "No," He almost squeaked, clearing his throat and cautiously scooting past the muscled trained killer, "Just – just call me if you need any help with this project."

Then in a flash he was gone – Becker's expression automatically dropped the army façade and he turned to his friend with concern, "Are you alright?"

Connor laughed at the drastic alteration of features on the soldier's face; they could hardly be classified as belonging to the same person – squeezing his arm in appreciation the scientist grabbed a coffee and swung up onto the table, smirking at his friend he pointed to where the worried fiancée had made his escape, "Teach me how to do that and I will be."

* * *

_Thank you for reading, hope you enjoyed :) x_


	6. Chapter 5

**Home-Bound**

**Disclaimer: **You know the drill...

* * *

Chapter 5

A week had now passed since they were greeted into their original time by a display of firearms and with that time had disappeared anyone's ability to claim that Connor just needed to allow himself to settle in; well that is if he ever brought the topic up, which wasn't a likely scenario.

It had been seven days and his desire to return through the anomaly was ever stronger.

Every frame-work was exactly the same; wake, eat, work, flat, eat, sleep – he wanted to shake someone and demand them to reveal how they live in such a structured and predictable format because he didn't know how much longer he could handle it. He'd been hoping an anomaly alert would have eased the burden since the adrenaline of chasing a dinosaur was within his main expertise; however there had been no such alarm throughout the entire collection of hours leaving all to be available consisting of either designing gadgets he had no desire for, or helping write-up and file endless pointless documents stating every needless detail about any time crack the team had ever come across.

Then following this was the frustrating triangle he'd somehow become a part of despite multiple attempts to explain he had no desire for a relationship with Abby to her fiancée, and that he was not looking to re-build a special friendship to the young woman herself.

Even Becker had been roped in to try and get the message across, but Kevin had been too intimidated to allow the man within speaking distance and Abby had flown into an accusation of him being jealous; which had resulted in the soldier declaring he was not part of a soap opera and refusing to take anymore spotlight in his friend's problem.

However despite those issues, Conner had come to terms with his desire to be reunited in the Cretaceous period – the only obstacle lay in informing Becker; which was an action he continually backed out of.

The soldier seemed to enjoy regaining a position within a professionally trained armed force team and he was extensively working on improvements to the security system; bringing plans back to the flat and randomly jotting ideas onto post-sticks. This was the basis preventing the scientist from declaring his need to leave; he was aware that if he asked, Becker would undoubtedly follow him into the past, and he didn't want to be the reason behind forcing his friend out of his home – he couldn't do that to the man.

* * *

A splinter of sunlight cast from the morning sky cut through the kitchen window, stroking the bundle of dangling pans and causing a line of delicate shimmers to dance across the drawn-out ceiling.

The light distracted the cabin-fevered raptor from watching the soldier's arm rhythmically stir a pot of porridge and he lifted his head from where it rested on the counter-top; his eyes circling the moving bright specks.

"I thought you wanted to try some of our human breakfast," Becker accused, tapping the creature on his nose with the wooden spoon, "You can't have any if you leave me to do all the work."

Steve sent him a sharp look and rubbed the white substance on his face onto the man's shirt, but nonetheless flopped his head back on the surface with an impatient huff.

"Don't blame me – you're the one who wanted porridge; I was perfectly content with a quick bowl of cereal," He replied, switching stirring arms as his left started to throb – it was true, he'd woken this morning prepared to collect his daily cornflakes when he'd been pelted with a can of porridge, the creature continuously taking the object in his mouth and chucking it at his head until the soldier relented and put it on the stove.

Snorting the raptor moved to nudge the pan as if to demand it to cook faster, however a hand quickly blocked his path, "You don't want to do that."

Steve bared his teeth at the offending object and the soldier moved his palm with a breathy chuckle, "Well don't come crying to me."

The raptor flicked his tail at the man's legs as if claiming him to be an idiot, then confidentially he stretched his head to nose the innocent pan.

His reaction was immediate, a piercing growl erupted and he slammed into the far counter as a fiery shot burnt through his skin.

Becker laughed at his creature friend, picking up the ready pan and dodging the tail that swiped his feet for finding humor at the raptor's pain.

"I did warn you," He said as he poured some of the breakfast into his own bowl, dropping the rest into a mixing bowl which he kicked towards Steve who had head-butted the tap and was holding his nose under the cool water, too pre-occupied to notice the eagerly awaited porridge.

Making his way to the living room, the soldier poked his head into the bedroom to check if Steve's antics had woken the sleeping scientist; however as suspected the young man was still sprawled across the bed, his face plastered on the pillow and hair jutting across his features.

He smiled at the peaceful image and carefully pulled the door-to; considering the amount of hours he'd been spending cooped up in the ARC lab, Becker thought an extra hour sleep would do the young man good.

From the amount of time the scientist was spending in the headquarters, even staying around to do paperwork; he could see that his friend was glad to be home – each day he had to stay later and later, finding new designs he could add to the security system just to have an excuse to stay in the building in order to stay in proximity to Connor who seemed to be returning home at darker hours of the night as the week went on.

This responsibility over the man, a truly protective quality was what had him swallowing back his dislike for the world they'd stumbled into; he may miss the freedom of the forest, the leverage to take new protocols or safety ideas without having to get them passed by a chain of command and mostly his energetic Peropenna but leaving his friend vulnerable to threats was not an option – meaning if the scientist wished to stay in their time of origin, then that is what he would do.

Sinking into the sofa, Becker dropped his head onto the back support as his eyes slipped shut; trying to raise the will to drag himself through yet another medico day.

A rough texture grazing his wrist drew him from his inward complaints and he raised his head once again to home a smirk; for he was met with the sight of Steve crouched by his feet, head stretched and tongue lolled in the process of devouring his untouched porridge.

"I guess you like it then," Becker teased, bending to place the bowl in better reach of the raptor and smoothing a hand over his head as he slurped the remains, "You're one strange carnivore."

"What's he done now?" A satisfying yawn stretched from the doorway, a ruffled child-like scientist pattering into the room.

The soldier turned his head to the new-comer, "You were sleeping."

"I thought we'd discussed the matter of you watching me sleep," He joked, pulling an arm above his head before letting it drop and sweeping it through his hair; causing a want to be punk like hairstyle, but without all the gel.

"But you're just so cute," Becker smirked as he shoved the raptor's head back down which had become very alert at the sound of his favorite man's voice; the scientist wasn't conscious enough yet to have an excited dinosaur leaping on him.

"Pretend I just threw something at your head – my arms too tired to actually do it," Connor replied, his answer muffled by his hand as he yawned again, "Anyway, what's Steve done?"

"He loves porridge now," Was the soldier's simple answer.

The young man shook his head, lowering onto the sofa and taking the coffee his friend always naturally made for him every morning; even if Connor ended up waking sometime in the afternoon he would still drink the beverage despite it being ice-cold, "He does remember he's a carnivore?"

"I guess it's hard when he hasn't been able to eat raw meet for a week," Becker muttered, his tone holding a slight wishful quality.

The scientist frowned at the comment, it seemed like his friend had just made a pass to missing something of the old forest; it may not have been a full on shout of 'I want to go back' but it was enough for the young man to shift on the seat and urge his mind to allow him to finally make a move to breach the topic.

"Beck…" He swallowed; Steve lifted his head at the falter and rubbed the man's hand as if encouraging him to just get the point across, "I was wondering –"

A shrill ring suddenly cut through the question with timing probably only ever seen in a movie and Connor sighed, sensing his courage fleeing back to the pits of his stomach.

The soldier let his gaze linger on his friend, reluctant to pick up the phone as he could see his friend had been about to venture into something important; however after three more rings which somehow managed to sound more impatient with each one, he had no choice but to answer.

"Yes – no Abby its Becker…" He didn't know why the blonde always assumed it would be the scientist answering; they'd only accepted one mobile from the team since they knew they'd normally be together, "Yes he's here as well – what? Why didn't you just – no – we'll be there now!"

Becker grinned, the moment of apprehension forgotten by the given news, "Anomaly alert."

An identical expression of joy lit Connor's features at those two words and he leapt from the sofa, tripping over Steve in an eager rush; but failing to lower his energy, he clambered off the floor and skid into the bedroom with a wild crash.

"So we should get ready…" He announced to the empty space, his eyes flicking down as the raptor raised his head allowing them to share an amused look.

The soldier suddenly found himself blinded as a jacket collided with his face and he felt his arm jerk from its socket by a hand that clutched his wrist, dragging him over the sofa-arm and towards the door.

"What are you doing? Let's go!"

The gleeful cry pierced his ear-drum and as he was pulled from the flat and he slipped the jacket from his head to send the raptor a pleading glance; his friend was quite a hazard when running on this much adrenalin.

Steve gave no help, simply laying his head back to the carpet, curling his tail around his frame; although Becker could have sworn he'd seen a smirk on the creature's face as the flat door swung close.

* * *

"What do we have?" Becker asked, stringing a Taser around his shoulder and chucking another over the car bonnet to his friend as they approached the assembled team.

Looking up from a discussion with the force captain, Matt slapped the man on the shoulder and jogged over to meet them as the army official gave a bark to a collection of snipers who quickly spread across the perimeter.

"We're getting a signal for an anomaly inside the building; it's a privately owned surgery and the owner's been having an extensive tantrum so we're only just been able to get him off site to open space to go in," The leader explained as he gestured them over to where the central unit were gathered, Abby offered the scientist a warm smile as they walked over whilst it was contradicted by a glare from the fiancée – the young man reflexively shuffled a bit closer to Becker.

"So we don't know if any creatures have come through?" The soldier queried, sending his own hard gaze at the jealous researcher since he was beginning to tire of the personal vendetta he was holding over his friend.

Clicking her weapon into power Abby replied, "No we do – a client saw them, described them as giant lizards with a thin sail all along its back; it was a better answer than some of the things civilians have given us in the past."

"She thought there were about a dozen," Kevin added, "Though she was busy running from the building so there could easily be more."

"Plus be aware that they're carnivores," The team leader continued, seeing the soldier's questioning frown he shrugged, "They ate her dog."

"Give me porridge any day," Connor whispered, earning a brief twitch of his friend's mouth but also a warning look as he inclined his head to the surrounding people throwing him odd glances.

Clearing his throat the scientist ignored the gazes and gave a conclusion, "It sounds like a group of Dimetrodons; they're meat-eaters from the Triassic period and basically look like the description your witness gave – in general it shouldn't be too hard to simply tase them and chuck them back through however I'd advice not letting them group together because that's going to make it a lot harder to keep an eye on each one to check whose about to take a bite of your arm."

Matt raised an eyebrow at the rapid available knowledge, "So you are a walking dinosaur encyclopedia."

"Well _technically_ they're not dinosaurs…" The young man couldn't stop himself from correcting, "It's a common mistake but they lived long before the evolution of the first –"

Becker's hand cut off the start of the history lesson and he went to ask for the strategy plan when the force captain appeared at the edge of their group with a stern expression, "Sir – we're not picking up any heat signals from within the building."

The team leader cursed at the information and shifted the grip on his gun, "Well send in the first wave to check," He ordered, watching as the man nodded and swiped his hand through the air causing a section of the black-knitted group to break away and disappear into the surgery.

Turning to face his team a sigh escaped his lips, "Okay, if the creatures have already left the premises we've suddenly got a lot less time and a lot more space."

Kevin grabbed a map from the SUV they were gathered around and knelt down to spread it across the floor, biting off a pen-lid he began drawing a large circle and started his input, "They can't have gotten too far if the anomaly only opened just under a hour ago, so if we send out paired teams each travelling outwards to the edge of this circle we should come across them."

A shout sounded from the top window and they glanced up to see one of the forces signaling a hand over his throat; announcing the building to be containing no pre-historic creatures.

"Okay that sounds good," Matt replied, running a hand over his mouth, "Right Kingston, pair your men and send them on this track – but be as incognito as possible or at least just tell any curious bystanders that it's an army training practice."

The captain took the order and ran back to his men, leaving the team leader to relay the same instructions to his colleges, "Abby, we'll take the far side – Kevin, Connor I want you two around the back and Becker I need you to join Kingston to even the numbers."

Response to these directions was what could be expected; the petite blonde threw a disappointed glance at the scientist whilst her fiancée drew a stretched blink, clearly restraining an internal sigh.

However it was the two returnees who found the biggest problem with this plan and the soldier was quick to voice this complaint, "I am not leaving Connor, we're a team – Kevin can go with your captain."

Slicing the barrel of his Taser between the men the team leader snapped, "He doesn't have an army background so won't understand any terminology or gestures Kingston uses – and that is the only way the man communicates so just do as I say before we start to get reporting's of bodies!"

He emphasised the instruction by nudging Becker further away with his gun; the soldier held Matt's stare for a couple of seconds but eventually hardened his gaze and took a few steps back.

Flicking his eyes to his agitated friend he tried for a reassuring smile and asked, "Same bet?"

A flash of familiar humor lit on Connor's face as he replied, "First one to get injured has to stick his face in Steve's dung."

Becker smirked at the confirmation but his eyes held the true fear he had for splitting from his friend in a creature chase as he muttered, "Just make sure you remember that."

Then with a forced professionalism he turned from the scientist and ran to meet the captain waiting by the surgery entrance.

"Right let's go," Matt remarked, dragging Abby in his chosen direction before she also started complaining about her given partner.

The remaining duo stood awkwardly by each other for a number of moments, neither feeling comfortable starting any form of agenda discussion with a person they'd been happily avoiding all week.

It was Connor, whose thrill for a hunt-down threatened to overflow, finally took a charge of the situation, "Come on," He sighed, clapping the man on his back and jogging to where they'd been ordered to search, "We're on a job – pretend I'm someone else if it makes it any easier."

A light chuckle flittered out of the researcher's mouth but he quickly brought it under control, re-adjusting his neutral expression before following the energetic visitor.

The scientist sped around the back of the building and didn't lower his pace as he gracefully leapt over the neighboring fence; Dimetrodons were not by far the fastest creatures but they definitely weren't dawdlers, they would have already gained quite a distance on the retrieval team.

He was already over his fourth fence and onto a street road when he thought to check behind him; turning he spotted his companion still struggling over the second garden barrier and he breathed an impatient sigh – he was used to being followed by a well-built army captain, he'd forgotten not everyone had equal stamina.

Studying the surroundings he continued racking his memory for any hints to where the creatures would be heading; he knew the urban environment was a setting they'd wish to quickly escape so an aim would be the cause of their running off otherwise they'd have stuck to the building or simply rushed back into the anomaly.

"Habitat, habitat – come on you know it…" He mumbled under his breath, slapping his hands against his face as the information surged to the tip of his tongue.

"Do a lot of running in the forest?" A voice gasped as the researcher stumbled over the last fence and onto the road, however before having time to regain his balance a sharp grip dug into his shoulders and Connor's face lurched into his personal space.

"Swamps!" The young man exclaimed, adding a small shake to his hold of the fiancée, "They lived in the swamps of North America – are there any nearby?"

Blinking in confusion to the sudden attack Kevin stumbled over his reply, "Umm – well… I guess –"

"Mate, today would be helpful," He prompted, slightly loosening his manic grip due to the man's startled expression.

"Sorry," The researcher found himself apologising and straightening his thoughts he answered, "We're only ten minutes away from the Wetland Centre – do you think that's where they'll be heading?"

Dropping his hands from the man he regained a hold on his Taser, "It won't be a comparison to their usual land but it's the closest thing."

"Good," Kevin sighed, shoving a hand in his pocket he grabbed his companion's wrist and placed an ear-piece into the man's palm, his voice escaping in a rapid fluster, "Here's a communication radio – it's your registered one so hasn't been collaborated yet but just tune it in so we can keep a tab on you; I'm going to circle around Queen Elizabeth's Walk while you span up the A306 road, I'll call it in so we can get a perimeter set up around the wetland – okay?"

Connor blanched at all the words he had just heard that meant nothing to him but before he had a chance to open his mouth the researcher had clapped him on the shoulder and sprinted down the road, leaving him standing alone with an ear-piece he didn't know how to use and place-name directions he had never heard of.

"Sure," He muttered, placing the communicator in his pocket seeing as he had no idea what to do with it, "Leave the guy whose just returned from the pre-historic period to find his own way around the city."

Glancing around the scientist had no concept of which road the man had asked him to follow, so he decided to instead just follow Matt's earlier instructions and continue heading straight on – he was assuming the wetland had to be somewhere in the general forwards direction.

His presumption was correct as only two more fences along found him standing in front of a small wooden entrance; fortunately there was a 'closed' sign in the window which took out the citizen variable so he cocked his weapon and made his way into the reserve.

A natural path ran next to the large lake with its right side layered in a reasonable collection of trees; silent footsteps followed the layout as he kept his gun constantly scanning the area, his eyes flicking for any sight of movement.

He sent a mental curse to the passing traffic as he tried to concentrate on any cracks of twigs or rustle of leaves; tracking creatures was a whole lot easier when there wasn't droning engines cluttering the back-noise – he would have appreciated the transport technology being just twenty years along in this moment, the energy efficient but most of all _silent_ car would be a great help.

A low growl suddenly emitted from behind and the scientist swung around to the sight of a lone Dimetrodon staring up at him; teeth bared and thin red sail fully stretched.

He didn't waste a second attempting to lure the creature into capture; he had learnt a while ago that just because you were friends with a raptor it didn't mean every carnivore was going to kindly do as you ask – mostly it just meant they'd attack you because they could smell the predator on your clothes.

A whirring splinter cracked through the air as he pulled the trigger and the over-grown lizard collapsed into an unconscious heap; it actually looked quite cute when it didn't have the gaze of murder set on you.

"So – where's the rest of your friends?" Connor whispered, kneeling next to the creature and running a hand over its textured skin; however as soon as his hand made contact a medley of warning tones rumbled and his head snapped up.

"Ah," He swallowed, looking to the fifth-teen or so Dimetrodons with fixed eye-line on him, "They're there."

What seemed like a few long minutes, but in truth was probably a mere mille-second passed and then the scientist was sprinting down the path; Taser abandoned by the only sleeping creature, with a horde of his spiteful acquaintances on his heels.

He cried out as he felt a pair of teeth rip through his trouser leg and in reflex he sprung and latched onto an overhanging branch, failing to lose momentum as he switched from running to swinging with a natural grace and continued his path leaping between trees. Risking a flick down he saw that the creatures had now caught up with him, however despite him being in the air and them on the ground; seeing as he couldn't remember if they had the ability to climb trees he thought it better to keep them moving hence not allow them an opportunity to try.

"No, no, no!" He shouted as he gaze switched back up to witness the fact that his tree path was soon about to experience a large gap, and judging the distance he didn't think he'd be able to make it.

However he had no time to do anything but jump seeing as his trees had run out so with as much force as he could muster, he pushed down on his legs and made the leap.

There was a miniscule matter of time, where Connor's arms were stretched to their maximum and his mind was within in its most optimistic setting; that the scientist thought he had made it – but suddenly his target branch seemed to be getting higher in the air and before he could cry out, he was engulfed in a thick swamp.

A cracked gasp sounded as his head burst through the surface, followed by some painful wretches as his throat rejected the mud that had scrambled into his mouth and he managed to wipe the mess from his eyes as his hands shook from the force of the coughs.

Tears edged to the corner of his eyes as he dragged fresh air into his lungs and cursed the team leader for not allowing Becker to come with him; he wouldn't be undergoing this panic if he knew the soldier was by his side with a trained protective eye.

Forcing back the moisture, he kicked his legs and swept his arms to send him towards the bank; he needed to get back up a tree, over the years high up a wooden trunk had become the place he'd felt safest – the height gave him a view of all on-goings plus with his natural acrobatic skills he was easily mobile among them.

However, a flash of red suddenly caught the corner of his eye on his first kick and he froze, his breath hitching in his throat and his muscles screaming in tension – he wasn't alone in the swamp.

* * *

Becker shoved past two gun-men and ran to where Kevin stood alone by the wetland entrance; it seemed Matt and Abby had yet to arrive but one missing team member had the soldier barking at the man with his fingers stroking the hand-gun on his waist, "Where's Connor!"

The researcher flinched at the demand and swung to the approaching army man with wide eyes, sub-consciously taking a couple of steps back he hurriedly answered, "He's fine! We spilt up – I went along Elizabeth Walk and told him to go up the A306 while I called it in, so he'll just be waiting for some of the force to arrive – plus I made sure he had his new ear-piece, although he doesn't seem to be using it –"

Whereas he'd planned his information to reassure the soldier it apparently did the complete opposite as a sharp pain shot up his back as he was slammed against the exterior visitor center wall by his neck.

An almost predatory growl erupted from Becker's throat as his face hovered inched in front of the frightened fiancée's, "You gave a man who has been living in the Cretaceous period for five years place-named directions and an item of technology not even you can work out how to power-up, and left him on his own?"

Kevin tried to swallow, really wishing he had the ability to look away from the murderous gaze as he replied, "I told him to wait – he won't be in any danger."

"No you told him you'd call it in!" He snapped, "That has absolutely no indication that he should wait for back-up to arrive!"

The idiocy of his actions started to dawn on him and a rush of fear for the scientist shot through his body, "I'm sorry… I didn't –"

"Exactly, you didn't think!" Becker hissed; he knew what he was currently doing was wrong but his friend was potentially in danger and he had no idea where he was – although he was surprised that nobody had yet noticed he had a team member in a choke-hold against a wall.

"I…" Kevin choked, the grip was beginning to get involuntarily tighter and noticing this, the soldier angrily released his hold, letting the man drop to the floor.

Rubbing his red throat, the researcher looked up and repeated, " – Jess has got a hit on his bracelet ID – here she can direct you!"

Quickly ripping the communicator from his ear, he passed it the now even more intimidating man and Becker was zoned into a mid-way flurry of words, "Matt continue straight, Connor's directly opposite to your position but Kevin you're the closest so –"

"Jess its Becker – where's Connor!" He interrupted, unfocusedly sticking out his hand and helping the researcher off the ground.

"Go through the wetland entrance and follow the path, he's about half-way up it but too the right not directly on it," She answered, for once moving straight to the point.

The soldier was already on the path the second the sentence had finished and he could hear that Kevin was close on his heels; apparently a threat to your love only needed to be hated when they weren't potentially being eaten alive.

Jumping over an unconscious creature he could see the tracks of a large collection of them pounding down the route and a couple of yards later the signs of something diving for the trees; he prayed Connor's acrobatic preference had helped him in this situation.

He skidded to a halt as a swamp blocked their path and he thought his heart may have momentarily stopped as his eyes found the figure of his closest friend neck deep in the middle of the muck, with a level of fear on his features that he hadn't seen since he'd been attacked and the scientist had been faced with Becker screaming on the floor as a stone claw gutted his chest.

Kevin arrived at his side and the soldier heard the in-take of breath which was most likely preparing to send out a cry of his friend's name; in a blur of movement he slapped a hand over the man's mouth, providing him with a brief shake of the head – if Connor wasn't speaking or moving, there was good reason for it.

Fortunately the scientist noticed the appearance of the two men and he fractionally turned his head, allowing him to glance to his hopeful rescuers through the corner of his eye; in the loudest tone he could risk, which was a breathy whisper, he called out, "They're in the swamp."

Becker adopted the volume, crouching nearer the edge of perimeter, "Do you have any way of moving?"

"No," He replied, his chest beginning to ache as he forced his breath to stay shallow rather than gasp in the air his fear was desiring, "For now I think they're happy with me as sitting prey – but they'll attack if they think they're going to lose me."

The soldier pressed his palms into his closed eyes; this was not happening – their survival skills revolved around hundreds of strategies that played out between both of them and Matt had gone crushing it to dust, landing Connor as a waiting meal.

Dragging his hands up through his hair a shaky sigh escaped his mouth as he pushed his brain to its maximum, shifting his gaze for anything that could get his friend out of the food bowl; he could hear Kevin hissing into his ear-piece, most likely demanding back-up but the soldier couldn't care less about the armed forces – it was the anomaly teams interference that had got the scientist into this mess so he wasn't about to let them mess it up again.

An idea suddenly flickered to life and he tore off his jacket, racing to the researcher he stole his also with no explanation and sprinted into the trees; he knew Connor was tuned in enough to understand what he was doing so there was no need to waste time informing a plan to someone who had no part in it.

Clambering up the tree which Becker guessed had been his friend's last post before he'd fallen, he crawled along the strongest branch and perched in a position that left him slightly behind the scientist; hurriedly laying out the jackets he tied the arms together before clutching the wood with one arm and lowering himself so he was dangling upside-down above the scientist, his legs securely wrapped around the branch.

The jacket rope fell so it was swinging behind his friend at a distance he could reach with a burst of energy; Connor felt the air brush his hair as the object appeared and he gave a mild nod to confirm he knew what he needed to do.

It would have to be a rushed procedure the second he went for the jump because as soon as he moved the creatures were going to be all over him.

Time seemed to slow as in perfect synchronisation the two men began a countdown in their heads; three… two… one.

Connor sprung his legs into a flip and latched onto the jacket, a giant splash announcing the prey was trying to escape, causing a number of bared teeth to break the surface and speed towards the swinging man.

Becker's arms lurched under the sudden weight and he groaned as he forced himself to tighten the grip rather than release as his muscles were begging him to do, "Move!"

Connor dragged himself up the material, having to rely on upper-arm strength alone as he crouched his legs into his body to save them from the Dimetrodon's which were leaping to snap at his skin; cursing as a set of teeth tore through his heel, "Great advice!"

The scientist was just a few more stretches from grabbing his friend's arm so he could drop the jackets, which now had extra passengers clinging to the bottom, allowing some of the creatures to get footing and reach nearer the climbing man; when suddenly the cavalry arrived on scene.

"Connor!" Screamed a high pitched voice and Becker's red face snapped up to see Abby run to the front of the force, Taser pointing straight for the creatures at his friend's feet.

A roar broke from his mouth, "Don't!" But it was too late as her finger hit the trigger and an electrical surge blasted into the carnivore nearest the scientist.

The vibrations that resulted from the shot startled the young man and as the soldier had feared he lost his grip; crying out as he fell from the rope.

In a swift automatic motion, Becker released the jackets and clutched onto his friend's out-stretched hand; with no thought but seeing the Dimetrodon that was about to savage into the scientist's leg, his other hand drew out the home-made gun Connor had been adapting the other day and pressed an added button at random before firing.

Multiple charges flew from the barrel straight to the swamp and on impact each one exploded churning a cloud of fire and smoke into the air; the two men were thrown into the forest by the force as Becker released his leg hold on the branch so they didn't snap.

The young man collapsed on his friend's chest with a sharp cry and the soldier quickly spun to cover his body from the blast of heat that lashed from the bullet bombs.

After a couple more seconds the deafening drums ceased and the ferocity of the flames backed away; cautiously, the soldier raised his head to glance at the swamp only to find it no longer there – a muddy graveyard in its place.

"Well that was definitely more interesting than desk work," Coughed the scratchy tone of the battered scientist; attempting to sit up before realising he had a full grown man pinning him down.

Becker assisted his sitting up procedure by dragging the man into a firm embrace, one hand clinging to the back of this head as he dug his face into his friend's neck with more emotion than he could ever remember showing, "I don't care if you like it here," The soldier choked, "We were much safer and better off in the Cretaceous – we know the area… and there's nobody to go messing with our routine and nearly getting you killed – I want to go back."

He felt Connor tense in his hold at the declaration but he couldn't bring himself to feel guilty for his selfish claim; they didn't belong in this time anymore, and he wasn't going to stay in a place that put his friend in a nearer death situation than actually living with dinosaurs ever did.

Unwinding his arms from the young man, he cleared his throat and reigned the emotions back; however kept one hand with a firm grip on the scientist's shoulder, the normal roles reversing as he took comfort from the presence of his friend.

"Sorry," He whispered, guessing he'd now caused an inner conflict with his demand, "I've been thinking it all week… I just feel like this is another anomaly visit, not a return to where I belong – I wake up each morning thinking we should check on the crack before realising I'm supposed to not care anymore."

Running a hand through his hair he continued with a sigh, "But I didn't want to tell you – I mean you've been so happy to be back… staying late every night to work on gadgets for the team – even doing paperwork just so you could be in the building… I had to find random jobs to do lasting longer and longer so we'd go home at the same time, but – this isn't home to me."

Becker waited for his friend to make a comment, to ask him how he couldn't feel at home in the time he was born; however, instead of any refusal to leave or anger for the suggestion – the young man burst into laughter.

The soldier reared back at the unexpected reaction, his eyebrows rising as the chiming noise grew and Connor leant into his shoulder from the power of his humor; his words hardly distinguishable through the emotion he gasped, "You were… _I_ was finding jobs to do because _you_ were staying later every day!"

He frowned at the shaky reply, "What?"

Lowering to a chuckle the scientist shook his head and leant back up, catching his friend's confused gaze, "I don't want to stay here either! And I didn't tell you for exactly the same reasons!"

The soldier's expression spread out to a smirk as realisation of what they'd done came into grasp and he joined the humor, "So we've both been hanging around against our will for the sake of someone who actually felt exactly the same?"

"Pretty much," Connor grinned, wincing as he adjusted his weight which sent a wave of pain up his leg from the gnashes left by the persistent creatures, "Although – next time, can we not presume we know the other's opinion and leave it until we get blown up to discuss our thoughts."

Starting to feel the effects of throwing himself over his friend in the path of a sheet of fire, Becker returned a strained laugh, "I'm good with that."

The distant shouts of the rest of the team begun to reach their ears and the scientist lightly tapped his friend's head as a threatening glare over-took his features, "I don't think you're in the right state to successfully kill anyone mate."

"I could still try," He muttered, trying to think of ways he could get around the unwritten law of not hitting women; although in this case he could consider just having a brief memory lapse around the matter.

Connor smirked at his friend's murderous mind-set, he was too elated by the news that he no longer had to stay in this time period to bother trying to talk the soldier down from attacking anyone – however, within the extensive flow of new information and emotions from his near-mauling somehow a trivial thought broke through the clutter.

"Wait a minute – does this mean we both have to stick our face in Steve's dung?"

* * *

_Thank you for reading, hope you enjoyed :) x_


	7. Chapter 6

**Home-Bound**

**Disclaimer: **Hasn't changed

A/N: So so sorry for the length of waiting time - it was exam season and revision was my one focus, I've only been released two weeks ago but as you can see I got right back to this... hopefully it was worth the wait, maybe? Kind of?

Anyway - hope you enjoy it, this is the last chapter now so thank you for reading and drop a review if you liked it :)

You're all awesome!

* * *

Chapter 6

Becker groaned and let his head vibrate off the steering wheel, his knuckles clicking as he tightened his grip on the machine attempting to restrain his urge to simply hit the acceleration whether or not all passengers were securely on board.

"You've been in it before Steve! It's a ten minute ride – you won't even have time to analyse what's happening before it's over!"

Connor had been debating with the raptor for over half an hour; the creature had been perfectly happy to get lowered from the window in a harness made of bed sheets because a maintenance man was working on the elevator so wouldn't be moving from the corridor for the day, then shoved in a pile of suspicious liquid covered rubbish bags when a lawyer decided their alley was a perfect spot for a smoke but getting in the back of a truck for a minuscule amount of time… _that_ was too far.

They needed to get going, the original plan had been to break into the head-quarters that very night but protocols of medical checks and de-briefs kept them late; and when these matters revolved around a unlicensed bomb feature on a gun a certain scientist made, there was also a two hour lecture on dangers to the team, civilians, national security and he vaguely remembered a brief mention of fish finger stock prices – although that may have been the concussion.

However the conclusive fact was that it had been a significant dent into the early hours of the morning when they'd finally been dismissed so plans of returning through the anomaly had to be postponed to the next day… during office hours.

There wasn't much to the operation; Connor would hack into the system and take down the creature identification security from the laptop in the truck, then they'd move Steve to the scientist's lab while they entered the main hub, set off the ADD to clear the main team then a few minutes later the fire alarm to eliminate the desk staff before slipping their raptor in and disappearing through the anomaly before they could be missed.

"Don't think I won't just leave you here – you're not our only dinosaur friend; we've got four more ready to welcome us back!"

Relating the strategy to previous plans the soldier was aware there were many unaccountable variables that could result in many a problem; but he was limited by the data failure around when their time-crack would close, meaning they had to go with whatever idea was available. Even if a large percentage of the tactic had been decided by his young friend; which already took away a stretched amount of likelihood to them succeeding.

"I will personally knead that smelly herb you love into a month's worth of your meat if you simply get in the stupid truck!"

However they would definitely have no chance of success if they failed to even get to the ARC first-off.

Slamming his door with a force that shook the whole vehicle, Becker stormed around the edge with a fire in his gaze and smashed a fist against the side of the truck.

"Steve - in!"

Dropping his head in the manner of a child scolded by his parent, the raptor shuffled up the ramp with no further complaint and curled up on the middle of the floor; purposefully facing his back to the soldier.

With another crash Becker closed the truck, noticing his friend's disbelieving look as he returned to the front seat.

"That is so not fair," The young man muttered, securing the padlock before running around to jump into the passenger seat.

Becker smirked at the scientist's comment, "Don't worry, you're still the favorite – I'm just the disciplinary father whereas you're more the nurturing mother."

"Oh that makes me feel better," Connor grumbled, fumbling with his seat-belt as his friend swung out of the alley; it was a necessary item when having a time-keeping perfectionist as your driver.

"I'm here to please," He muttered as he broke through a red light to the scream of an array of horns.

The scientist clung to his seat with wide, panicked eyes, "Well then could you maybe try to not kill us!"

"You drive worse than this in the forest."

"Yeah but I don't have a few dozen metal bodies ready to speed into my side!"

"We're in a truck – even if they did hit us they'd hardly cause much damage."

"I'd be inclined to disagree – look out!"

Becker swerved just in time to miss a bus that had pulled out of a side road; barging onto the opposite lane for a few seconds where luckily there was no on-coming traffic, "I got it – I got it."

However the scientist did not agree with his friend's casual declaration at all and tightened his eyes, deciding he didn't want to witness a car plowing into them or a sharp turn leading to the cold end of a brick wall.

"And here I thought living with a raptor was going to kill me," Connor shakily muttered, winching as another horn blasted them.

"Stop panicking – you'll still get the chance."

"Only if you hand my car-mangled corpse to Steve to finish off."

"… I can do that."

"I feel a bit sick - I think I may have preferred Matt's driving."

"I doubt he would approve of certain passengers."

"Well I wouldn't tell him who's in the back."

"Although the dinosaur smell may give it away."

"There's no smell; plus humans wouldn't be able to distinguish even if there was so it doesn't –"

"You know – you can open your eyes…"

The last statement was laced with smug amusement as the scientist opened his gaze to his friend's raised eyebrow in the very stationary vehicle concealed within the camera's blind-spot in the delivery deport; coughing he began typing on the laptop hooked to the dash-board, "I knew that."

"We've been sitting here for five minutes."

Connor cleared his throat and shifted his position, "I knew that too."

Becker chuckled at his friend's responses and gave him a brief nudge on the arm before jumping from the truck to slide the daggers and hand-guns that were placed by his feet into his waist-band under his top; he would have liked to take back some of the twenty-first century bigger guns as well but they were hardly inconspicuous to carry around the main office when they hadn't been licensed for patrol use.

Flicking his gaze up he noted that the scientist had nearly completed his hacking of the creature identification; the man got this increasingly gleeful expression on his face whenever he neared completing a task.

"That's quick," He commented, handing his friend a pair of daggers as the laptop beeped and Connor snapped it shut.

"I could have invented that software," The scientist replied, moving to the back of the truck, "And to a higher quality – you know they've got all forms of animal listed to set it off… as in you bring your puppy to work and you set off an entire lock-down list."

"Curse the day a spider crawls through a crack in the wall," Becker mumbled; fiddling with the padlock he was becoming more aware of the fact they were about to try and sneak a velociraptor into a government building in the aim of not being spotted by one individual… just thinking it made him feel naïve.

Connor climbed into the back of the vehicle with a hoop of rope awaiting a neck as he crept behind the raptor who hadn't turned around to the sound of the opening door; probably still sulking at the soldier's earlier tone. However the teenage attitude did allow the scientist to slip the roughly-made lead over the creature's head; offering him a shrug when he snorted with aggravation at the new accessory, "Sorry mate – it's not that we don't trust you, it's just… actually no," He paused, sliding a smirk into position, "It's because we don't trust you."

Becker rolled his eyes as Steve knocked the young man off his feet with a quick tail swipe for the comment and he dragged the scientist out of the truck before he retaliated, "You can fight later kids – now we have to be moving."

"Fine," Connor sighed, taking the raptor's rope and following his friend yet childishly poking his tongue at the creature when Becker's back was turned; to which Steve stood on the man's dangling shoe-lace so he face-palmed into the floor.

* * *

Fortunately the first corridor was empty; they had five lengths of path to get to Connor's lab – the fifth being the hardest since it had four other experiment rooms lying parallel to it meaning there would be a higher flow of people.

The preceding corridors were all long stretch routes that weren't regularly used since there were quicker paths to reach the destinations they led to; gesturing his partners to inform it was clear the soldier tore an eagle gaze across the single security camera in the far corner as they closed the door and lingered as planned.

Despite Becker's disarray at the flaws in the ARCs security system this one now worked in his favor; the corridors they were travelling down all had cameras on rotation so all he needed to do was wait for the blind-spot, sprint and block the mechanism so it was turned at an angle with enough space for all three of them to pass unseen.

At the last corridor the soldier couldn't believe their luck; they hadn't bumped into a single person and now even the problematic path was a clear route.

"Go!" He whispered, pushing Connor in-front and falling in behind the raptor with a restless gaze on the empty hall.

Suddenly he was in the lab with a disbelief that everything had happened as hoped, glancing around he met his friend's eyes which were shaped by raised eyebrows, "Are you sure it's not an annual day off or something?"

Becker chuckled and shook his head, edging around the table to open the rear-cupboard he replied, "That or they've been watching us the whole time and are waiting to jump out… come on Steve, this is the last time I promise."

The raptor had taken a few steps back as the small enclosure was revealed, understanding their expectance of him; however Connor was more tactical this time and as the creature moved into his space he picked up a pen and stabbed it at the tip of his tail in the area he knew was akin to a ticklish spot.

In immediate reaction Steve lurched forwards as a vibration shot up his limb and stumbled into the cupboard which slammed behind him before he could release a growl of resent.

"You'll regret that later…" Becker murmured; eyeing the door as it shuddered against the hit of an annoyed dinosaur.

The scientist smirked, "He'll forgive me – come on."

Leading out of the room he continued on the corridor down to the hub with the soldier close at his heels, one hand in his pocket where he was probably fidgeting with the single match taking occupancy. It was quite a trivial idea, but lighting a flame to trigger the water system was a lot less hassle than hacking into the software and making it think there was a fire.

However firstly Connor needed to set the ADD on anomaly alert; it wouldn't be hard seeing as there was an anomaly sitting a few meters away from the machine meaning all that needed to be done was reprogram the computer to scan the control room again since it had been taken off the list due to the lingering time-crack.

He aimed straight for the machine on entering the room, sensing Becker halt at the desk nearest the doorway and pick up a file to flick through so he could scan the occupants; fortunately Jess wasn't anywhere in sight meaning he had clear access to the ADD – however a mere few paces from the control board a stressed bark captured his movement.

"Connor, nice of you to finally arrive!"

The scientist turned to his name with forced patience, "I always believed consistency was more important than punctuality."

Lester threw a trademark 'You're not funny' expression despite the amusement in his eyes, "Well as long as unemployment is a factor on your wish list you can maintain that belief," Gesturing to the office holding Abby, Kevin and an up-tight vainly suited man he lowered his tone with added urgency, "Anyway – you're needed in this meeting."

The young man hesitated, sending a nervous flick to his friend who was watching the conversation from behind a folder; they really needed to clear the room, "Actually…" He extended, edging nearer the ADD, "I was just going to check if anything else had been picked up because of yesterday and – "

"It's turned off at the moment," Lester interrupted, checking the guests in his office before moving closer to his employee on seeing the confused features to whisper, "That's the finance minister cluttering my room and seeing as he signs our budget I don't think an empty headquarters would achieve much."

Grabbing Connor's arm he released a highly uncharacteristic, slightly borderline, manic laugh and waved to the 'money man', who returned a wary nod; once his back was turned the strung boss dug a tighter grip and hissed, "So get your brain in that room and help Kevin fascinate him with his latest gadget thing."

Unable to give further input the scientist locked Becker's gaze as he was dragged by his persistent boss and directed his head in the ADD's direction; the soldier took the message and casually strolled towards the computer still reading his file, keeping to the edge of the wall – an attempt to continue his invisibility to Lester to ensure he didn't also get forced into the sucking-up meeting.

Despite the one minor flaw in the plan everything was still on track, all Becker needed to do was flick the switch and set off the anomaly alert; however the adding of a new rough tone to the room froze his purpose and he fought back a glare at his colleges cheerful attitude.

"Money man still here?" Matt asked; flinging a duffel bag onto his desk with a lack of respect for the weapons inside that made the soldier winch.

Lester somehow seemed to increase in his manic expression at the man's loud exclamation and hissed, "If you mean the man who signs whether or not we get paid then yes! So if you would just –"

He underwent a rapid change as the click of his office door sounded and a painfully welcoming smile plastered his face as the finical minister stepped out of the room followed by the rest of the bored-faced team, "Everything alright James?"

"Of course it is! No we're just – you know, paper-work stuff," The boss rambled as Connor tried to keep the pain off his features due to the nails now digging into his skin, "And we were also saying maybe you'd like to see the garage – Kevin's probably tired you out with all that technical jargon so we could move onto the vehicle budget."

The minister eagerly nodded at the suggestion, glancing at the scientist who was still fiddling with his gadget as if in fear that he'd try to explain the item again, "That's a good idea," He replied, "I know that recently our departments been pondering over the concept of adding motorbikes to the collection – better accessibility around the streets and all that."

Becker and Connor, the latter who had managed to free his arm of his boss's grip shared a smirk at the words; both thinking how a motorbike here was nothing compared to what they could do with one in the open forest.

Though unfortunately Matt also noticed his brief exchange and also clued into the passing thought, remembering the men's discussion in the car a few days previous and he voiced the joke, "Well if we're getting motorbikes just keep them away from Connor – don't fancy getting run over."

Both men tensed at the casual comment, clearly the team leader didn't realise that he'd just stepped into shaky ground for them and it was clear that it had caused an effect as Abby turned a slight frown to the young scientist.

"But you can't drive a motorbike," She queried.

Before Connor had a chance to make an excuse the persistent team member went and opened his mouth once more, "He learnt in while they were living in the Cretaceous – they got a couple of bikes from a future period and would…" A flash of panicked realisation struck his face as his brain finally caught up with the information his mouth was alliterating, although he quickly smoothed it out and at least tried to hide what he's just said, "Well anyway – how about I take you down to where we keep the cars?"

The light tone was very convincing and if they're boss were anyone else the slip of the tongue probably would have been missed, however Lester was not one of those men.

"I'm sorry – did you just say they got bikes from a _future_ anomaly?" He spluttered, that common sight of anger melting over his face, "And rode them around the Cretaceous period!"

"No, he asked if the finance minister would like to be taken down to see the cars," Connor quipped in an innocent tone, nudging Becker's elbow with indication to follow him out of the room, "Which I for one think is a task that could do with three men – we do own a lot of vehicles; this way sir – we've got an awesome collection –"

The scientist managed a few steps but there wasn't enough time to jump out of the Lester blast zone and the man began barking orders, "Everyone stop where you are! Matt – fetch a clean-up team, dimwits don't go anywhere and minister- " The glare he received reminded him who he was shouting at and his voice dropped back to overly considerate, "Sorry, I mean minister would you like to go and wait in our break room while we just get this mild error rectified."

The confused suit glanced around at the team members who were flicking nervous gazes between each other; he partially wanted to stay for the entertainment factor of it all but at the same time he remembered seeing some chocolate biscuits in the other room so he returned a small nod and departed the scene.

It seemed that responses had been held in until the stranger left because the second the tap of leather shoes faded down the corridor voices were shooting in all directions.

"Sir I'm sure there's no need to get a clean-up…"

"We'll go in ourselves and sort it out for you – just go and deal with the minister and it'll be –"

"Did I just spend the night on this device for nothing?"

"Lester man, you can't do that – it's not a big deal…"

"But you always hated the idea of motorbikes!"

A hand slammed down on the ADD desk and a high pitched electronic screech scraped across the room, sending the occupants to cry out covering their ears in pain; successfully stopping the complaints.

Lester released pressure from the button and stiffly shook his head from the discomfort; casting a glare over his colleagues his reply came with a no argument underline.

"Yes there is need for clean-up so go and fetch one," The answered pointed to the team leader, who despite bracing his shoulders put a finger to his ear-piece and began talking to the soldiers in the building.

Turning to Becker he continued, "I can't send you in because I don't trust you'll really carry out the task – who knows what other gadgets you stored up over time."

"Kevin," Lester sighed looking to the man holding out what seemed to be a pile of wires, "… I really don't care."

The hard tone marginally soften as it moved onto the young scientist, "Connor, that period may have been your home but it's policy to not contaminate the past – sorry."

"And…" Finally he glanced to the petite blonde whose gaze was focused on her ex-nearly boyfriend, "Actually your question wasn't for me."

Spinning on his heels Lester approached the ADD and picked up a spare ear piece – frowning at the device for a few moments in an effort to figure out how to activate it, before ordering, "Whoever's on the end of this thing go and keep the expensively suited man in the break room occupied, sit on him if you want but don't let him leave that room until I say so."

Turning back to his colleagues he took notice of the increasing muscle tension from the two old arrivals as the efficient security clean-up operational team began entering the area; Tasers clicking into gear and guns sliding into holsters.

Matt followed in last, his expression announcing guilt and displeasure for ending up the cause of having to destroy whatever it was Becker and Connor had created as a home in the far period.

Plus it wasn't as if he wanted to do this either, but as the boss he didn't have the luxury of personal motivations – of course many times he would ignore rules or take actions due to the friendship he wouldn't admit holding for his staff; however this was different, contamination of past eras was a serious issue – previous experiences of Cutter and Jenny being a prime example, he had to at last follow protocol.

"Team equipped and ready _sir_," Matt's ending tone not missed by many and the young scientist sent the man a curious glance for the subtle loyalty show to them who were practically strangers.

Restraining a sigh Lester stepped aside to allow the team to form their tactical position around the locked anomaly, "This isn't a guns blazing mission – just… just get rid of anything that doesn't belong in that time period."

Nods of understanding returned and an in-office scientist knelt next to the locking-device, tapping into the correct figures and watching as the ball of energy momentarily shrunk before rapidly expanding to leave shards of floating glass in the center of the room.

Becker had been refraining from comment or movement from the basis that his mind had been rapidly attempting to figure some way to alter this situation, however he had nothing – and with a quick side glance it was clear neither did his friend.

So came the conclusion of out-right begging, "Look Lester – you can't do this, you don't understand we –"

The soldier had paced forward to block the time-crack but two officers were on him straight away, pinning his arms behind his back and struggling to maintain grip as they were met with the unexpected strength.

This set Connor off who charged towards the anomaly, sending two men flying to the ground as they attempted to block him, "You'll destroy them if you mess with our house!"

The shout broke into a cry as someone twisted his arm behind his back in a hold that could potentially snap the limb; teeth slicing into his lip he swung his head backwards causing the assailant to crumple down.

"Don't hurt them!" The order was a mixture of Matt and Lester as the army officers continued a forceful attack on the two men's path to the time-crack.

Becker was now free and another man collapsed as he leapt over the unconscious body to stumble into his friend's side; he brought his gun up as he felt Connor's hand slide the daggers from his waist-band – forming a united front denying access to their open anomaly.

A tense silence stretched throughout the Hub, the sharp pants of the officers signaling the only noise; fighting men from the pre-historic era did that to you.

The seconds continued, each person waiting for another to make the first statement.

Eventually it was Connor who took the step.

"Look," He spoke in a gentle tone, as if trying to sooth a wild animal, "We get that this is your job – that you're just doing what you think best."

Pausing he turned his gaze to his old boss, "But Lester man – you got to trust me… we can't let you destroy the house we built – you'll be killing our family."

Expressions of confusion slipped over the occupants as the choice of phrase and Abby stepped out of the tight group of soldiers, her wide eyes fixed on the young scientist, "What do you mean family?"

Before an answer could be given Kevin joined the conversation, gluing to his fiancées side, "Are you saying there are other people living with you in the Cretaceous?"

Becker inwardly smirked at the idea of thinking of their dinosaur friends as humans; they were hard enough to handle as it was.

Connor clearly sensed his friend's thought although his outer expression hadn't altered from its death glare as he threw a glinting glance at the man, "I wouldn't quite put it like that."

The soldier took the cue – restraining rolling his eyes at the movie dramatics of the action – and blew a piercing whistle.

It seemed that the guys really had been missing them because the second the noise vibrated Polly hopped out of the time-crack, hesitating at the sight of a strange old world; her heavy wings bristling at the fear of danger.

However Becker's face lit up at seeing his personal dino-bird, "Hey girl, long time no see."

The Pedopenna's head jerked up at the familiar voice and a fond rumble left her throat as she eagerly fluttered onto the man's shoulder; slapping a wing over his head as if reprimanding him for disappearing.

"Someone's in trouble," Connor chuckled, also feeling an ease settling in his stomach at the familiar sight.

"Well not all of us got to bring our kid with us," The soldier replied, running a hand through the creature's feathers but winching as she took a few nips of his skin; Polly was always slightly high strung whenever they left for an anomaly however it seemed that over a week was pushing it too far.

Connor was glancing around, looking for other figures he'd been expecting, "Speaking of kids – where's the rest of the gang?"

Both men had become oblivious to the knowledge that their show was being viewed by an array of co-workers; neither man saw the shocked expressions… or even Lester's hidden smirk from seeing that whatever happened the young scientist would always have a compulsion to make friends with the natives – flesh-eater or not.

It seemed Connor had strained his voice into the anomaly enough times to convince the remaining creatures to dare the adventure; Grace and Lola charged through first, altering course straight to the scientist's legs and ramming him to the floor in their form of an affectionate greeting.

The Pachycephalosaurs was last, entering in a fashion that involved pushing half a small boulder before him before quickly disappearing back through the crack to only re-appear with the other half.

Becker laughed at the young creature; whose head was flicking expectantly back and fore between the two friends and his broken boulder, "I said you'd break it eventually – we'll have to find you a new project now."

'Dim Dom' stared up at the soldier for a couple of seconds, then seemed to take the words into account as he began running head first into a nearby stone pillar.

He was never going to learn.

On the floor, Connor was beginning to have trouble breathing since the Ankylosaurus' clearly didn't understand that their armored body plates _were_ heavy –and that his chest was not a suitable resting spot.

"Come on girls, don't kill me during the reunion," He wheezed, managing to push the dinosaurs away and fumble into a sitting position.

However Grace went straight back to nudging his arm and the curious linger in her gaze lit a bulb in the scientist's head and he returned to lie on the ground with a loud groan.

Becker asked the question with a raised eyebrow.

"Steve," Was the answering mutter.

A feminine scream pierced the halls just as the soldier drew a heavy blink at the thought of how angry the raptor was going to be at getting left in a closet.

Jess was on the heels of her cry, sprinting into the Hub and colliding with her boss – who surprisingly allowed the young girl to cling onto his jacket as she stared from where she'd just run with wide eyes.

Steve wasn't far behind; of course to those who hadn't raised the creature from an egg – plowing through the doorway, baring teeth in an echoing growl and taking out every item in an immediate radius showed clear signs of a predator lashing out for prey.

However for two people who had once witnessed the raptor cause a mudslide which took out 250 hectares of forest simply because Polly ate the meat chunk he'd been eyeing; this was just a child with a tantrum.

"Steve!" The scientist tried for the command tone however it presented him with a deeper growl so he switched to an off-setting grin, "Hey man – look we didn't _mean_ to leave you in the cupboard for so long."

The raptor flicked his tail crushing another cabinet; clearly not impressed by the excuse.

Ignoring Lester's grumbles of 'I'm not running a damn petting zoo' the young man changed tactics and side-stepped to allow the creature a full view of the open anomaly.

"Does this buy me your forgiveness?"

Steve's head perked up as the scents of the forest hit his sensitive nostrils through the time-crack; although that didn't mean he moved over to join the collection with all moodiness gone – Connor still got his foot stood on.

The entirety of the room that had been excluded from the bizarre reunion gazed at the picture before them in shock, confusion and a tad of awe; it was like watching a cover shoot for some dinosaur magazine – two men (one hopping with a grip on his pained foot) flanked by prehistoric creatures who should have been taking bites out of their defenseless bodies, yet were instead showing protective tendencies.

It was definitely one of those 'you had to be there' moments.

Throughout the minutes Abby had been an onlooker in a contemplative silence, quite an uncharacteristic trait, and as more creatures had arrived she had witnessed her old friends' postures increasingly relax, their speech become more casual and less filtered as it had been since the return – and although her heart ached at the truth she knew what was about to happen.

Because this wasn't their home anymore.

For them it was 144 million years ago.

And seeing Connor bend down to whisper to the two Ankylosaurus', no tension in his muscles from the raptor breathing down his neck – and Becker unconsciously running his fingers through the bird-like animal on his shoulder as it leant further into his neck.

She finally understood.

"You're leaving."

Two pairs of eyes snapped to meet the sad but accepting gaze of their petite friend, slowly she stepped past the array of guards and cautiously approached the family; despite his sulking Steve's gaze still hardened at the stranger passing the appropriate boundary zone but the scientist placed a hand on his skin to inform permission for the woman to enter.

"I get it now," She continued, her voice was quiet, hints of water beginning to surface in her eyes as she placed a hand in each of theirs, "I think – well I think I just wanted none of this to have happened, you guys came back and I didn't want to believe five year had passed… just wanted everything back – everything that was ripped away from me."

Connor squeezed her hand at the small words, he been waiting for this, when Abby realised that the past and present weren't two things that could be intermingled after so long – but that didn't mean it wasn't painful to see the grief on her soft features.

She glanced to the man that in one life may have been her fiancée at the pressure and gave him a light smile, "You were that one who got away, I think if all this hadn't happened we would have been together – but I am happy with Kevin, I love him – but there's still always going to be a part of you with me… but, sorry for being all clingy and stuff."

The scientist offered a boyish grin, teasingly replying "No worries – I know how irresistible I am."

Abby chuckled as the soldier clipped the man around the head for joking when she was upset, but she didn't mind – it was nice to have Connor acting comfortably around her one more time; she knew he'd been wary and on edge due to her behavior.

"Try not to give him brain damage Becker," She smiled giving his hand a squeeze as well.

This earned a quirked eyebrow and rouge smirk, "Too late for that."

"Oh nice," Connor groaned, re-claiming his hand to hold it in-front of him, "Re-form our friendship by insulting me, thanks guys."

Abby laughed and pulled both men into a hug, tightening her grip as she whispered, "Thank you for giving me a goodbye."

Stepping back the soldier brought up her hand and placed a kiss on the palm, gently replying, "Look after yourself Abs."

"Yes sir," She choked, turning to face Connor who placed a hand on her cheek, smoothing away a tear with his thumb before placing a kiss to her forehead, "Bye you dinosaur geek."

The scientist smiled though his own eyes had water brimming, "Thanks for everything."

Then she forced herself to release her hold and move out of the circle she was no longer part of, moving back to Kevin's side who had watched the interaction with worry as the words had been too quiet to hear, she placed an arm around his waist and reached up to give a reassuring peck on his lips; grateful for the accepting nod he gave her rather than asking any questions – he'd had a hard week yet he was still here, it was one of those amazing qualities he held.

The finality of this movement seemed to be the signal to begin the farewells as Lester took a few steps forward, hands clasped behind his back and announced, "So you're finally going back then."

He smirked at the confusion that over-took his ex-employee's expressions and drawled, "You didn't expect me to believe you two would stay here? Please – I've been waiting for you to pack up and head home six hours after you arrived."

Becker raised an eyebrow at the information, "So why did you just try to destroy the home you were expecting us to return to a few minutes ago?"

"Well as the head of this rare department I have to follow protocol – however it's hardly my fault if as the operation was about to start two men broke through the security team, ran through the open anomaly and the locking device just happened to malfunction after them so we couldn't follow and carry out a clean-up operation," Lester replied in his professional smug tone, "Is it?"

Connor grinned at his old friend; he knew the man wouldn't hurt them like that – he really was an amazing boss, "Man you do love us!"

"Quite the contrary – I can't stand you, so please hurry up and leave," The words had no malice in them and the man's eyes held a hidden sadness as he gave his own form of goodbye.

"Couse Lester, we'll get out of your hair," The young scientist returned, "However…"

Suddenly he lunged forward and pulled the prim man into a gripping hug, laughing as he fought against the embrace and released the traditional shout of, "Connor!"

The young man jumped away at the cry, "Just wanted to hear that one more time," He smirked, nudging Becker in the side who simply rolled his eyes and leant forward to share a handshake with their old boss, passing a nod of thanks and respect to the man who would always be there to bend rules for the needs of his team.

Lester moved away, grimacing as Grace started nudging his leg and Matt took his place; he clapped a firm hand on both of the men's shoulders with a wide grin, "It was nice meeting you guys."

"You too – I'll try not to shoot you if we ever meet again," Becker responded, returning a slap on the man's shoulder.

"I'd like to see you try," He quipped, offering Connor a nod who replied with a wide grin before taking place among his team once more.

Glancing around the Hub the two men took in the surrounding faces of the team, those old and new – before looking to each other with a silent agreement.

"Let's go home," The scientist concluded, placing a hand on his raptor's neck.

"Might as well," The soldier smirked.

And in sync they disappeared through the anomaly, the shards of time-glass flickering around their forms as two men followed a predator back into history.

…

Suddenly a flustered Connor stumbled back, throwing a sheepish grin to the room, "Sorry – forgot someone."

And he grabbed 'Dim Dom' who was still running head first into a concrete pillar.

With one leg in the past he turned to catch the gaze of the man he hadn't got a chance to get to know the good side of; with a smile he titled his head – eyes reading the words, 'Look after her.'

Kevin held the look, understanding the meaning that passed and return his own softened expression, 'I will.'

And then the last of the history travelers vanished for the last time; the anomaly gently expanding before sucking into nothing – as if even it had sensed that it couldn't have closed before what was rightfully its had returned.

* * *

Standing side by side two friends watched the rising sun peek over the mountains behind the glistening lake that lay next to a prideful tree with what was their home carved into it.

Glancing side-ways Becker draped a casual arm around the man's frame, "Fancy a drag-race?"

His eyes still on the view that had caused unease to completely leave his stomach the young scientist felt a smirk etch his features, "You're on."

And both sprinted off to their motorbike shed – two armored creatures fighting to trip them up by running between their legs as a raptor tore ahead with a competitive desire to win whatever game was happening, with a feathered Pedopenna comically bouncing up and down on its shoulder perch from the fast motion.

Whilst Dom began work on his new boulder.

* * *

_Thank you once more :) x_


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